Travelling along our historical Grand Trunk road or any other road connecting cities, towns or even villages, the usual sight is dumps on both sides of roads. We are increasingly dumping our waste in water bodies and at empty lands, sooner we’ll be trying to find our ways among dumps to reach a certain destination.
There are two major approaches towards solid waste management. First one is used mostly in the developing countries and in the countries where land is abundantly and economically available. It is known as centralized dumping and land filling. In this approach dwellings in a radius of 50-70 kilometers are connected through garbage transfer stations and all collected waste is transported for disposal at scientific landfill facility securing underground water and air. The second approach which is used in highly developed and strikingly successfully implemented in Tamil Nadu State of India is to have source separated waste being collected and handled at decentralized or centralized facilities. Tamil Nadu comes out to be an example which we in Pakistan may follow. They have similar waste characterization, socio-economic conditions and human behaviour. However, they managed to get rid of their waste dumps within 3 years as reported continuously by Ms. Isher Judge in The Indian Express from time to time. They not only got rid of waste dumps but they managed to eliminate need of expensive trucks and equipment to transport waste and dispose it. On the other hand, they also managed to earn economic benefits in form of cash and savings. This all was possible with support of three pillars i.e. legal backing, clear policy and its implementation and continuous sustained community engagement. Waste management authorities also did not abandon their intended plans due to any political, legal, technical or social obstacle faced during this transition. The results have been amazing, no big trucks and expensive compactors transporting waste, no waste dumps within and around the cities and recycling of more than 80% of the waste produced with sustained income.
It is now time for Pakistan to decide about the future path. The first choice is to keep investing in mega projects and outsourcing to carry waste from one place to another. In its improved version of this approach sanitary engineered landfill sites could be established for clusters of cities. This would be more economical as well pose least threat to the environment. The increased amount of waste reaching the facility may also attract private investors for waste to energy (though currently feasible way is only through extraction of methane gas) or waste sorting plants. This approach would show good results within short to medium term as evident from example of Lahore and Rawalpindi.
In long run waste needs to be minimized and recycled (including its 50% organic part). This can only be achieved if waste can be sorted at source and its being done in the developed countries as well as Tamil Nadu state of our neighbouring country, India
In long run waste needs to be minimized and recycled (including its 50% organic part). This can only be achieved if waste can be sorted at source and its being done in the developed countries as well as Tamil Nadu state of our neighboring country, India. Source sorted waste provides high quality organic waste for composting and the recyclables that fetch high price in market due to their high quality. In case of Punjab province a ‘Waste to Earning’ model can be implemented. The lessons learned from India, Indonesia and West could be integrated to bring a self-sustained model in which we may get rid of waste dumps in 5-10 years. This model can be started from private housing authorities where urbanization is more systematic and waste collection efficiency and community cooperation is expected to be high. Social communicators must be hired for at least a year as this work cannot go long way with volunteers. Source separated organic waste can be converted to compost using Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) widely used in Indonesia. The larvae not only convert organic waste to compost in 12 days it yields huge number of larvae to be used as poultry or fish feed, high in protein (47%). In Tamil Nadu the local government established more than 700 micro composting centers and this helped a lot towards success of the decentralized waste management approach. It also showed that intervention and investment from government side is vital at least in the beginning to improve waste management sector. Our wishes of private sector investment and also sharing of its revenues with government are very unrealistic especially with the existing low level of government investment in the related infrastructure and the system. The developed countries without any exception were the first to make heavy investments in the sector and still subsidize heavily the electricity purchase produced from waste.
Government has to take the initiative and lead in all terms including technical support, legal support and financial investment, only after a certain stage private sector would jump in. Now it is time for Punjab province to decide because it alone produces more than half of the 78,000 tons of waste produced in the country every day. It can decide to keep engaged in short to medium term quick solutions of waste collection and transport at massive scale, keep investing heavily in the system or take first step towards long-term sustainable solution. The latter option seems to be the one which requires continuous hard work for few years with results coming slow but it reduces need for heavy investments in transport and disposal. However, the most important player in this regard would be the waste producers. Their behavior needs to be changed and they should consider themselves responsible for the waste created due to the commodity they used for their comfort or enjoyment. Waste culture where one considers itself responsible for the waste produced needs to be flourished and it can come with continuous awareness campaigns and provision of related infrastructure and services. Pakistan can take a small step in right direction by starting it at small-scale preferably from the private housing societies of big cities or focusing on small towns and even villages where larvae produced in waste to earning model can be a source of feed for poultry easily.
The writer is working as a senior specialist at the Urban Unit