Managing waste is a critical challenge for India’s cities
India
alone generates 5.6 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, according
to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). 80% of this waste is
‘potentially’ recyclable but 40% of it isn’t even collected
Waste generated by modern society is one of the greatest problems of the 21st century. A 2014 Planning Commission report estimates that urban India generates around 60 million tons of waste. Most of this remains untreated and as India grows rapidly, the challenge of managing waste will only become more daunting.
Waste can be broadly
classified into three varieties—synthetic, inorganic and organic. Synthetic
waste, like plastics, and inorganic waste like minerals, iron or other metals
are typically not biodegradable. This means that these types of waste will stay
on in the environment for decades. If untreated, these can seriously harm the
ecology and contaminate ground water. Organic waste like food is biodegradable,
but poses a different problem. With lack of proper segregation and treatment,
organic waste can turn into a breeding ground for diseases and pose a public
health risk. With India’s landfills perpetually over-flowing and waste
incineration requiring large amounts of energy, waste management needs an
innovative and holistic intervention, and urgently so, if we want to achieve
our cleanliness goals as a country.
Waste management is a
complex problem. To simplify it, we can think of it as two basic challenges.
The first is a scientific one—what materials constitute waste and how waste can
be treated efficiently. The second challenge is infrastructural—how to create
efficient systems required for collection, treatment and safe disposal of
garbage.
Synthetic plastic is
one of the materials that generates a significant amount of waste. In general,
synthetic plastic is a very versatile product with valuable properties such as
durability and leak-prevention. Hence, eliminating its use often isn’t an
option. In such circumstances, a big breakthrough is to create biodegradable
and even better compostable plastic that can replace the synthetic kind. These
innovative new plastics have the physical properties that make plastic so
useful but are made from natural and easily biodegradable materials like from
any sugar generating plant (e.g. tapioca, corn or potato)....Read more:
