Wasting energy: 92% Of J&K’s Waste Goes To Dump Sites, Higher Than National Average

Srinagar: Out of the waste generated in Jammu and Kashmir per annum, 8% is processed and the remaining 92% is going to the dump sites, government said.
Disclosing the information in Lok Sabha earlier this week in reply to a question by DR. (Prof.) Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and climate change Babul Supriyo said 501,510 MTPA is generated in the state and claimed that 8% of it was processed as per details available by the end of November 2018.
He said as per Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Annual Report for the year 2016-17, it is estimated that the total generation of solid waste is approximately 1,50,000 T/day. Out of the total, approximately 90% (1,35000 MT/day) is collected. Out of the collected waste, he said, 20% (27,000 MT/day) is processed and the remaining 80% (10,8000MT/day) is going to the dump sites.
“Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) conducted study in 60 major cities of India and estimated that around 4059 ton per day of plastic waste is generated from these cities,” he said, adding, “Extrapolating this it is estimated that around 25,940 ton per day of plastic waste is generated in the country.
“The CPCB in 2005 estimated 1.47 lakh ton of e-waste in the country. As per the United Nations University report, “The Global E-Waste Monitor 2017”, 20 lakh ton of e-waste generation was reported in the country in 2016, he said. “As per information available with CPCB 69,414 MT of e-waste was collected, dismantled and recycled during 2017-18,” he said and added that the inventory of e-waste generation state wise has not been completed for all the states and only six states—Goa, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have completed the inventory of e-waste generation.
“Quantity of hazardous waste generation in the country was around 7.17 million ton during 2016-17, of which 3.68 million ton (49.46%) was recycled,” he said.
He said for sound management of various type of wastes, the Government had “comprehensively” revised and notified various waste management rules in 2016 on hazardous waste, E-waste, solid waste, plastic waste, construction & demolition waste and bio-medical waste.
The rules emphasize on recycling and material recovery and provide for technological options for management of such wastes, he said.
“The recycler/ operator/ generator may opt for any recycling/ resource recovery technological options, after due evaluation by prescribed authorities viz. State Pollution Control Boards/Committees, Central Pollution Control Board, Local Bodies.”
CPCB, he said, has published guidelines for environmentally sound recycling of commonly recyclable hazardous wastes like used/waste oil, zinc dross, copper dross, used lead acid battery, etc. CPCB has prepared 52 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for utilization of 40 different types of hazardous wastes after conducting trial runs.
“The CPCB in its guidelines for collection, segregation & disposal of plastic waste has prescribed for technological solutions including utilization of plastic waste in road construction, co-processing in cement kilns, conversion of plastic waste into refused derived fuel (RDF) and disposal of plastic waste through Plasma Pyrolysis Technology.” Similarly, he said, the Biomedical Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 prescribe segregation, collection, pre-treatment followed by channelization of waste plastic, glass and metals to authorized recyclers as well as disposal of infectious incinerable bio-medical waste through incineration.
Further, he said, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is undertaking research and development projects for e-waste recycling and recovery.