Cement, Energy and Environment

' ..... ' t t I I Gurgaon (MCG). ''The municipal authority has notified four villages for dumping C&D waste," says Ruchika Sethi, member of the group. Sethi, who is steering the case in the tribunal and holding consultations with the corporation, says, 'The authorities were planning to issue notification to penalise builders who fail to transfer their C&D waste to the dumping areas. They delayed it because of the 2014 general elections." But dumping urban waste in villages may lead to protests by the residents and result in a Thiruvanantha- puram-like situation (see 'Stench in my backyard, Down To Earth, September 15, 201 2}. The municipal body plans to set up a plant to recycle the waste in the Aravalli hills. This may do more harm than good to the envi ronment. Initiatives in India In some cities, local authorities have tried to fix the problem. The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) is possibly the first urban local body in the country to have launched a scheme for C&D waste management. Under the decade-old scheme, residents can dial MCC's helpline number for C&D waste removal and the debris gets collected within 48 hours. "We have identified four to five sites across the city where the malba (C&D waste) is dumped. We also use the inert waste to cover up the garbage in our landfills," says Vivek Pratap Singh, commissioner of MCC. However, he admits that most of the C&Dwaste does not reach the designated dumping sites. Developers use the waste to reclaim low-lying areas around Chandigarh. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) framed the Construction & Demolition and Desilt ing Waste (Management and Disposal} Rules in 2006 after realising that more than one– third of the waste it was collecting was the C&D waste generated by its ever expanding real estate What constitutes building debris compost liOn or construction and demolition waste in India as per rechnologv Information. I orecasting and flssessment Council 23% Concrete 5% Metals 36% Sotf/Sdttd. gravel 2% Wood 1% Others 31% Masonry/bnck and infrastructure sectors. Poor implementation of the rules means illegal dumping of C&D waste continues unabated. Builders have even started charging customers for disposing of debris. "My contractor sends someone to col lect malba," says Kamini Baghchi of Andheri who is getting her house repaired. "He charges extra for that." Policy void Proactive measures by these cities have failed because there is no policy at the national or state level to tackle the waste. C&D waste finds only a brief mention in Schedule Ill of the Municipal Sol id Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.MoUD'sManual on Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, offers a basic guideline on handling C&D waste. These guidelines are not binding on developers or government development agencies . In 2009, MoEF constituted a Working Sub– Group on Construction & Demolition Waste to evolve a mechanism for management of solid waste. The sub-group made several recommendations, which include developing institutional mechanisms for waste collection, reusing and reprocessing the waste; segregation of C&D waste at source; imposing charges on waste generators; formulating standards for C&D waste and amending the Municipal Solid Waste Rules. MoEF's proposed amendments in the rules in 2013 did not include the Working Sub-Group's recommendations. Instead, it is now drafting separate rules for managing C&D waste, Construction and Demolition Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2014. Is it really a waste? Several countries have found ways to manage the C&D waste: they recycle the waste and reuse it in construction. Singapore, which generates 260 kg of C&D waste per person-India's per capita C&D waste is 420 kg-recycles 98 per cent of it (see 'Lessons from abroad' p 39). Of late, there have been sporadic initiatives in India to recycle C&D waste into aggregates for making ready-mix-concrete, pavement blocks and concrete bricks. In 2009, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi , in collaboration with IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services Ltd (IEISL), set up a C&Dwaste recycling project in Burari. "The recycling plant has a capacity to recycle 500 tonnes of C&D waste a day, but it receives 1,200-1,400 tonnes daily," says N B Mazumdar, technical advisor to IEISL. 33