Novel technologies in MSWM (India)

The Kerala State generate 3.75 million tons of Solid waste annually. Out of which, the 93 urban local bodies contribute 3,750 tons solid waste per day (TPD). Biodegradable waste is 69% whereas nonbiodegradable waste is 31% as per recent studies. Only nearly 20% of the biodegradable waste is treated at household or community level and remaining 80% is not treated properly. Similarly, 60% of the nonbiodegradable waste is dumped illegally or burned and the remaining waste is collected by rag pickers illegally. A small fraction is recycled at community level. The state has no engineered sanitary landfill and centralized municipal solid waste management facilities. Subsequently major fraction of Municipal Solid Waste has been dumped openly at public spaces, low lying areas and water bodies which caused serious environment and public health hazards. The consequences of this mismanagement of MSW were evidenced in the floods from 2018 and 2019, wherein the openly dumped waste increased the flood retention period and the state had to face the challenge of dealing with post flood SWM problem due to lack of processing and disposal facilities. To address the drawbacks in the present SWM system, a study of generation, collection, transportation, processing, disposal etc has to be analysed. The gaps in the solid waste management facilities are to be identified based on national and state act, rules, regulations and guidelines in each sector. A sample study on the applicability of the technologies will be carried out for small ULBs (less than 50,000 Population), medium ULBs (1-2 lakh population) and Municipal Corporations above 5 lakh population) in the final report. Technological solutions are suggested considering the legal and regulatory aspects and the challenges in Kerala to integrates health and environment aspects.