This is a presentation of Dr. Prasad Modak, executive president of the Environmental Management Centre LLP in India. The presentation was first presented in Singapore at the “wasteMET Asia 2012” ISWA Beacon Conference on 3-4 of July 2012 and it provides an overview of the waste management situation in India.

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3. • India is rapidly urbanizing…
• By 2050, 50% of Indian population
will be in cities

4. Estimations show that the total MSW generated in
urban India in 2012 was 188,500 tons per day (TPD).
In a “business as usual scenario”, urban India will
generate 160.5 million TPY (440,000 TPD) by 2041
choking city landfills.

5. As of now, the Class I cities alone
contribute to more than 72 percent of the
total MSW generated in urban areas.
However by 2021, cumulative waste
generation at 366 towns is expected to take
nearly 60% of total urban MSW generation
indicating a need to focus on MSW
management at these growing cities.

6. By 2016, share of middle
class households in 20
“boom” cities will move
from 39% (as from 2007-
08) to more than half
(55%) and share of high-
income class will triple in
the same period (to 13%).

7. Need to find ways to tame consumption by
Reducing our wants
Promoting Green Public Procurement
Practicing 3Rs

8. Emergence of New Waste Streams
• Plastic – Critical issue, Multi-pronged approach
needed
• Construction & Demolition – Potential and Need
• E-Waste – Rising recycling market
• Health-care – Serious shortfall
• Household hazardous – Implication to Compost

9. Need a comprehensive and
integrated strategy
Concern: Weak capacities at ULBs

10. In India, extent of waste
segregation at source is
low averaging to 40%.
Further, the collection
systems in cities are not
tuned to or oriented to
capture the segregated
waste and hence even if
the waste is segregated
at source, it reaches the
bins or transfer stations
in mixed form.

11. But recycling rates in
Indian Cities are high
Thanks to the Informal Sector

12. Houses
Offices SWM system - India
Market
Formal Informal
collection system
(mixed) (recyclables)
Re-
Dhalaos Waste
Thiawalas
cycler
Dustbins pickers s
Big
Kabaris
Municipal Small Small Kabaris
truck Kabaris
Thiawalas
Landfill Big Waste pickers
kabaris
Source: CHINTAN. "Space for Waste:Planning for the Informal Recycling
Recyclers Sector." New Delhi, 2003

13. Material and Cash Flows
Municipal Value chain
activities activities
Generator/
Processor
end user
Collection Junk shop
Waste
Disposal
picker
Cash flow
Material flow
Partial Material flow
Source: Adopted from Anne Scheinberg, WIEGO, Informal Sector Integration and High Performance Recycling: Evidence
from 20 Cities, Working Paper (Urban Policies) No. 23, 2012

14. The Informal Sector Needs
• Partnership and Recognition
• Infrastructure – Space,
• Equipment/Machinery,
• Collection Vehicles
• Finance - hedging on volatility
• Training, Innovation

15. Strategies – Planning Consideration
Category Norm per Guidelines
1,00,000
population
Waste Each waste picker handles 60 kg of waste per day and
215 requires 60 sq ft of space near the dhalao for segregation
pickers
Each worker requires 125 sq ft of space near the kabari
Other
90 godown for segregation as well as road space for
workers
transportation
3000 sq ft has to be allotted in a shopping centre to each
Small
6 small kabari for segregation and storage of about 1500 kg of
kabaris
waste, and shelter for workers.
Thiawalas are located near markets and call centres and
Thiawalas 33 each thiawala collects waste from 150 shops and
establishments daily
The big kabaris need storage space of 60,000 sq ft for
Big kabaris 1.5 roughly 60,000 kg of waste which they collect weekly from
the small kabaris
Source: CHINTAN, Informal-formal: Creating opportunities for the informal waste recycling sector in Asia,2005

16. Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
• Alliance of Indian Waste Pickers (AIW) is a
national network of 35 organizations, waste
pickers and/or itinerant buyers in 22 cities.
• ExNora in Pune, Stree Mukti
Sangathana in Mumbai, SEWA
in Ahemadabad and Chintan in
New Delhi

17. Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
• Can form union and partner with city
administration or with Corporate to assist in
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Mumbai waste pickers involved with ‘Tetra pak’
for segregation and in Delhi with Coca-cola for
shredding PET units

18. Public Private Partnership
• The private sector involved in door-to door
collection of solid waste, street sweeping in a
limited way, secondary storage and transportation
and for treatment and disposal of waste.
• Cities which have pioneered in PPPs in SWM
include Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Chennai,
Rajkot, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad, Surat, Guwahati,
Mumbai and Jaipur.
• In most of the cases, the ULBs have benefited by
reducing 30 to 50% of their operating costs.
• Still a long way to go…

19. Case Studies
• Navi Mumbai Corporation, Rajkot – Addressing
multiple waste-resource streams
• Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Hyderabad –
PPP Contracting
• Ahmedabad, Mumbai – Stakeholder involvement
• Namakkal – Zero Waste Town

20. Decentralized Material Recycling Hubs
– Get value from waste,
– Substitute virgin resources
– Create green jobs, with better working conditions
for the Waste Pickers. The waste pickers are
provided with uniforms and safety equipment.
– Promote entrepreneurship,
– Encourage community as well as Corporate
involvement,
– Avoid long transportation
– Reduce burden to the landfill

21. Weigh bridge
Sorting
Inert Storage
Organic storage
Bio-methanation
or Composting Waste Sorting Centre
plants
Waste Innovation centre
Generators/U
sers Waste Sorting Centres
Street Gardens
lights
Material Methane gas for street lights and
Recovery to fuel transport vehicles
Centre Processed materials for users
Compost to gardens

22. Understanding
Waste-Resource Linkage
Needs Policy Intervention

23. Waste Management as a Business
• Interest is now growing…

24. India is Waking Up in the Solid
Waste Management Sector

25. Thank you