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A glimmer of hope for wasteful Gurugram

Gurugram city has for almost a decade struggled with one of its worst ‘waste nightmare’ epitomised by heaping stinky waste at Bandhwari.

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Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram city has for almost a decade struggled with one of its worst ‘waste nightmare’ epitomised by heaping stinky waste at Bandhwari. It is caught between the defunct Bandhwari solid waste treatment plant and yet to be set up waste to energy plant. Having drawn a lot of flak from agencies such as the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Gurugram has taken up the long-deferred challenge: To reduce untreated waste by 50 per cent by adopting decentralisation techniques. 

Gurugram, the only cosmopolitan city of Haryana, produces around 1,500 metric tonnes of waste every day — 900 metric tonnes being municipal or domestic waste and around 600 tonnes being construction and demolition waste. According to official records, the waste production has doubled in the last decade but the city could not adopt matching waste disposal or treatment methods. 

The city’s only solid waste treatment plant was set up at Bandhwari in 2007 and it started operations in 2008. The plant was to handle increasing solid waste owing to the urbanisation of Gurugram and Faridabad. However, it was shut down in 2013 after a fire broke out there. The fire incident rendered the plant defunct but till date the landfill on its premises continues to receive on an average 1,200 metric tonnes of garbage every day from both Gurugram and Faridabad. Soon, it will be the biggest garbage mountain of the National Capital Region (NCR).

Even though the Haryana Government has promised to revive the defunct Bandhwari waste treatment plant by June this year with Ecogreen’s ambitious energy from waste plant,  given to its slow progress the civic authorities, taking a cue from the big cities across the world, is adopting various decentralisation techniques of waste disposal. 

Composting 

Composting refers to the treatment of domestic biodegradable waste to make an organic mass that can be reused as natural manure. Gurugram that started composting on a ‘backyard’ scale as a pilot project has set an example of successful community composting. Supported by the Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG), 12 tonnes of waste is being composted at 40 locations in the city, including at over 25 residential housing societies through resident welfare associations and other bulk waste generators, every month. The housing societies are not just using the compost to transform their green belts from dump yards to kitchen gardens, but are also making money for inclusive micro financing, as the civic authorities buy compost to maintain parks and public green areas in the city. 

The flag-bearer of the initiative is Nirvana Country, a sprawling 108-acre scenic and lush green residential community comprising 1,100 independent bungalows with independent gardens. A few years ago, vast acres flanking the community were strewn with plastic bags and mounds of waste being burnt there at odd times of the day forced many residents to shift out. Things, however, changed when local residents joined hands to deal with their domestic waste themselves. They not only volunteered to segregate domestic garbage at source but also established the most successful composting units of Gurugram with the help of the civic authorities. For waste segregation, Nirvana Country followed the 2bin1bag method and two coded green and red dustbins and a bag were given to all residents: The green bin for wet kitchen waste, the red bin for rejected and hazardous waste and the bag for dry recyclable waste such as plastic, paper, cardboard and metals. The bins were funded through a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project and provided to the residents free of cost along with a laminated segregation leaflet. Orientation programmes were also held for the horticulture and housekeeping staff in order to sensitise them to the subject of waste segregation and the problem of garbage in the city. 

The quantum of organic waste from our huge parks and independent gardens was over a tonne a day and the community after a lot of industry research went for in-vessel composting and metal wireframe composters. Food waste was crushed while horticultural waste was shredded before being added to the composters. Gradually, their own composting infrastructure included five 2,000-litre composters, one 2.5 HP horticulture shredder, 10 metal bins and a food crusher. All this was funded by the resident welfare society (RWA). Nirvana Country, which has around 900 occupied bungalows at present, has successfully generated over five tonnes of compost, and kept over 50,000 kg of organic waste from being dumped at the Bandhwari landfill since November last year. The compost is being used in the 16 sprawling parks inside Nirvana Country and also being sold to residents at a nominal fee with their consent.

“Like any community project, this also ensures inclusive growth. It has not only increased community involvement but has also helped residents to treat waste at source to get organic manure, which is used to make the area green and even earn money, leading to overall progress. The key factor here is awareness and sensitisation. Over the last few months, the willingness to participate has increased among residents, who wish to take it up voluntarily rather than under duress of some rule,” says YS Gupta, Additional Commissioner, MCG. 

Plastic waste treatment

Plastic waste constitutes 9 per cent to 12 per cent of municipal solid waste and its treatment has been one of the biggest challenges for Gurugram. Now, the civic authorities plan to use it for the construction of roads in Gurugram city — a prototype 100-metre stretch has already been built in Sector 51. The stretch will be supplemented by a second prototype road of 150 metres in the same area. The process of using plastic waste for road construction starts with the collection of plastic, shredding it to a particular size and heating the mixture to 165°C. The heated polymer is mixed with hot bitumen, at 6 per cent to 8 per cent by volume. 

The technique is the best possible solid waste disposal method, and will reduce financial burden on the government and the civic bodies by cutting costs and giving roads a longer life. This process is already in use in Tamil Nadu where over1,000 km of municipal roads and over 16,000 km of rural roads have been made using plastic waste. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palika and the Karnataka Rural Roads Development Agency have also constructed over 3,000 km of roads with this method.

Mobile solid waste treatment plant

At any given point of time, Gurugram has over 3,000 construction or renovation projects under way. According to the civic authorities, construction and demolition waste constitutes 30 per cent of the total solid waste. 

A recent survey by the MCG has highlighted that around 5 lakh tonnes of solid waste is lying around the city, dumped on roads, in green belts and even in Aravalli forests. The construction and demolition waste means waste comprising building materials, debris and rubble resulting from construction, re-modeling, repair and demolition of any civil structure. The MCG, inspired by the civic model of Indore — the cleanest city of the country — plans to recycle and convert the construction waste into tiles and use them to beautify and support public constructions. According to the initial plan, a mobile construction and demolition waste recycling plant will soon be operational in the city. The mobile unit to be moved around using a tractor will transform the current approach to waste treatment to be more proactive. The unit shall approach construction sites and treat the non-contaminated concrete or masonry waste on the spot.

The MCG plans to set up a semi-mobile construction and demolition waste recycling unit that will be responsible for the removal of contaminants such as ferrous material using magnetic separation. The waste shall then be converted into grout, filler and tiles that will be used to make roads in the city and benches in parks etc.

Hazardous household waste 

Following waste segregation at source, the MCG plans to set up a hazardous waste treatment plant in the city that shall be treating domestic bio-hazardous waste such as sanitary pads and diapers. The hazardous waste is often blamed for clogging of drains and is found haphazardly dumped. Special hazardous waste collectors will be installed across the city and eventually in all residential housing societies and schools.

E-waste management

Though unaccounted for, Gurugram, also called a cyber hub, is amongst the country’s top e-waste producers with old mobile phones being the biggest culprit. People either sell their old mobile phones on the grey market or to street vendors or simply hoard them, raising security concerns. There have been instances of unregulated burning of e-waste leading to hazardous fumes. The MCG has engaged a specialised agency to set up e-waste collection centres across the city for its recycling professionally.

“We will soon be having the biggest and the best waste to energy plant of the country. But at present in its absence and even with it later we see decentralisation as the sole answer to the waste woes of cosmopolitan Gurugram city. We have taken up the challenge to reduce garbage at the Bandhwari landfill by 50 per cent. The initiatives have been taken after a lot of research and maybe in six months, their effects will be visible. We have already made a mark in composting and plan to do the same with other initiatives as well. Greater efforts are needed in the direction of crafting innovative communication campaigns to educate people about the benefits of a decentralised system. It will go a long way in inducing a behavioural change among them and eliciting their cooperation for making Gurugram a clean and sustainable city,” says Yashpal Yadav, MCG Commissioner.

Cost-effective method to build stronger roads

  • The technology for using plastic waste in road construction was invented by Prof R Vasudevan, Dean and Head of Chemistry Department at Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, in 2002 and patented in 2006.  
  • Plastic waste is first shredded to 2 mm to 4 mm, while the aggregate mix is heated to 165°C. 
  • The shredded waste is then added to the aggregate and heated. This is finally combined with hot bitumen and the resulting mix is used for road construction. 
  • Roads laid using plastic waste are expected to be free of potholes and have ‘excellent resistance’ to water and water stagnation, enhanced binding and better bonding of the mix, besides negligible maintenance cost in comparison to bitumen roads. 
  • Tamil Nadu has built over 1,000 km of municipal roads and over 16,000 km of rural roads using plastic waste.

Decentralisation of waste management only solution

We will soon be having the biggest and the best waste to energy plant of the country. But at present in its absence and even with it later we see decentralisation as the sole answer to the waste woes of cosmopolitan Gurugram city. We have taken up the challenge to reduce garbage at the Bandhwari landfill by 50 per cent. The initiatives have been taken after a lot of research and maybe in six months, their effects will be visible. We have already made a mark in composting and plan to do the same with other initiatives as well. Greater efforts are needed in the direction of crafting innovative communication campaigns to educate the public about the benefits of a decentralised system. It will go a long way in inducing a behavioural change among them and eliciting their cooperation for making Gurugram a clean and sustainable city.  —Yashpal Yadav, MCG Commissioner

Community involvement has increased

Like any community project, this also ensures inclusive growth. It has not only increased community involvement but has also helped residents to treat waste at source to get organic manure, which is used to make the area green and even earn money, leading to overall progress. The key factor here is awareness and sensitisation. Over the last few months, the willingness to participate has increased among residents, who wish to take it up voluntarily rather under duress of some rule. —YS Gupta, Additional Commissioner, MCG

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