The British Government have decided to permit local councils impose a rubbish tax on households for the garbage thrown out by them. The "pay-as-you-throw" scheme, aimed at encouraging people to recycle waste, is part of the draft Climate Change Bill. The UK is faced with massive EU fines of upto $350 mn for failing to adhere to EU limits on the amount of garbage dumped on landfill sites. Such landfills, apart from polluting the soil and air, also the emission of powerful greenhouse gas methane from improper decomposition of biodegradable waste.
A few interesting things about the debate of relevance to us in India are
1. The difficulty in implementing the rubbish tax. It is acknowledged that local councils are going to find it politically difficult to impose such taxes. It is much the same in India, where the penal provisions for littering itself is very weak and inadequate. The transaction costs involved in the collection of fines for littering is prohibitively high.
2. The importance of awareness creation among general public. A Parliamentary Committee has found 57% of British citizens are "committed recyclers". Awareness creation should involve projecting a "save-as-you-throw" dimension, instead of the more penal "pay-as-you-throw" aspect. We have yet to make a meaningful start in India on this.
3. An organized market in recycled goods is virtually absent. Many items which can be easily recycled - bottles and packaging materials, damaged electrical equipments and materials, damaged vessels and utensils, rubber items, paper products, plastic materials etc - can be more easily collected through an organized retail network. The existing system of rag-pickers and other informal channels in developing countries, can at best be a second option. There is therefore an immediate need to create a market in recycled materials.
4. Waste to energy plants have practical problems. Waste energy plants across the world, more so in developing countries, face problems with local residents in terms of air pollution related public opposition. Apart from public opposition, there are other technolgy related problems, given the waste mix and calorific value of garbage generated from households in India. Both combustion and anaerobic digestion (bio-methanization) technologies have inherent limitations when applied to Indian and similar developing country contexts. Both technolgies require segregation of garbage (the most critical solid waste management challenge facing us) for economically viable operation of the plant. While there are successfully operating pilot plants (we have in Vijayawada both the types of plants), there are a very few or no fully operational large scale plants in the country. Compounding the problem is the low power tariffs offered by State Electricity Boards (In this context, we could have some certification like "Green Power", for power generated by such units, with some financial incentives structured so as to not distort the market)
Update 1
China is building large numbers of solid waste incinerators, whose harmful effects include toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous. system
2 comments:
levying tax on garbage production, per month is good. It will make the whole garbage collection an organized effort. Creates responsibilities, contracts between citizens and the civic body employees.
waste segregation as a responsibility of the resident? ... Any thoughts on this ? I'm sure Vijayawada residents will come forward and volunteer. The residents have to segregate and keep garbage in various green, red, black bags for organic/other degradable waste, plastic/silicon/glass/iron and for paper and other recyclable waste.
VMC however has to bring in residents into the play. They will solve the problems themselves.
Waste segregtion or segregation-at-source is very difficult, almost impossible to implement. In fact, some would call it the biggest challenge facing solid waste management across the world. Despite many focussed and concerted efforts, it is not being implemented at scale, anywhere in the country. In fact, it is not being properly implemented in scale even in the more successful examples of solid waste maangement in Europe or Japan.
In Vijayawada, we have spent considerable time and effort in initiating the same. Over 1 lakh baskets have been distributed in almost all colonies. But even separating into two baskets - bio-degadable and non-degradable - is proving impossible. Ask a few very successful Residents Welfare Associations - Ayyappa Nagar, Electricity Colony, Muthyalampadu, RTC Colony, SBI Colony!
Segregation at source is not going to be solved by residents themselves. Nor will it be achieved with residents and VMC working together. We need to bring in the market. I have a post on this - http://gulzar05.blogspot.com/2007/09/solid-waste-disposal.html
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