Decentralized Solid Waste Management

Case Study Prepared by: Sridhar Pabbisetty, Enterprise Development Specialist, CHF International

Table of Contents
Decentralized Solid Waste Management ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Economics of Decentralized Solid Waste Management .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Parivarthana Overview............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Kasa Rasa Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Recommendations: .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Role of Urban Local Body & other authorities Bangalore ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 17 Data Sources .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 17 References ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18

Introduction
Bangalore is a fast growing urban Metropolis in India. According to the 2011 census Bangalore is the 3rd Most Populous city in India only behind Mumbai and Delhi. It is also the second fastest growing City in India today. 1 Along with rapid urbanization, the problem of managing the waste generated by the city is becoming a continued challenge for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). According to a study conducted by Chanakya and others, Bangalore generates around 3000-4000 t/d of USW of which a major constituent (72%) is organic waste.2 Decentralized Solid Waste Management is a well acknowledged system to manage the solid waste generated in urban locations.3 4 In this case study we delve into the Viability Challenges of decentralized solid waste management model. This study is intended to enable Urban Local Bodies understand the realities of DSWM Operations and make informed policy decisions. The analysis is the outcome of studying two Decentralized Solid Waste Management initiatives funded by CHF International5 in partnership with Centre for Social Action Christ University (Bangalore)7. The first initiative is called Parivarthana, a decentralized waste management project in the slum communities of Rajendranagar, Ambedkarnagar along with the campus of the Christ University under CHFs Slum Communities Achieving Livable Environments with Urban Partners (SCALE-UP) project6. The second initiative is called Kasa Rasa8 a waste management facility designed to manage the waste from 1000 households of Ejipura ward along with serving as a market place for itinerant informal waste recyclers to sell their collected waste under CHFs Trash to Treasure Project. Attempt is also made to map and profile key govt departments & relevant officials involved in decisions that impact operations & revenue of recycling centers including the aspects of setting up of the centres, applicable procurement practices and maintenance costs.

Economics of Decentralized Solid Waste Management

Parivarthana Overview Parivarthana began its operations in 2008 June with door to door waste collection, sorting, composting and sale of recyclables in Rajendranagar slum. Over the next three months a paper recycling unit was started in Christ University followed by sorting of waste, composting of wetwaste and sale of recyclables. The program was extended to Ambedkarnagar in Jun 2010. A formal method of capturing revenue and costs was introduced in Nov 2009. The organization structure of Parivarthana can be summarized as below:

As of Dec 2011, 11 CIG members were involved in the operations of various units. The sources of income and expenses of each unit has been described in the diagram below:

Viability Gap For this study, the following costs have not been included in analyzing the viability of Parivarthana: 1. Organizational Setup a. Cost of hiring of the team b. Training the team with the basics of Solid Waste Management, Paper Recycling c. Getting experts from design firms for designing templates and methodology for the Paper recycling products d. Managerial inputs and expertise for the creation of business plan and monitoring mechanism of activities 2. Infrastructure a. Recycling Unit in Rajendranagar, Ambedkarnagar and Christ University b. Paper Making Unit in Christ University along with the building and the machinery costs 3. Indirect Costs

a. b. c. d. e. f.

Project Managers salary Co-ordinators Salary Management Overheads Accounts Admin and general co-ordination Travel costs to interface with the external agencies Telephone costs

Essentially in this project the focus of viability is to understand the ability of the project to meet its direct costs including the expenses on Salary, Maintenance and Consumables. Many indirect costs as seen above have been excluded. As can be observed the surplus from the Paper Recycling Unit has helped in achieving operational surplus for the overall activity.
60,000

40,000

20,000
Surplus / (deficit) Amdedkar Nagar

0 Apr-10 May-10 Apr-11 May-11 Nov-09 Aug-10 Nov-10 Aug-11 Mar-10 Mar-11 Nov-11 Feb-10 Jul-10 Sep-10 Feb-11 Jul-11 Dec-09 Dec-10 Sep-11 Jan-10 Jun-10 Jan-11 Jun-11 Dec-11 Oct-10 Oct-11

R Nagar CU sorting station CU Paper Unit

-20,000

-40,000

-60,000

The above diagram shows the Surplus and deficit of all the divisions individually and overall of the Ambedkarnagar, Rajendranagar, Christ University(CU) sorting station and CU Paper unit. As can be noticed the overall operational viability has been on a upward trend. In order to understand the trend, the below diagram is helpful where we only look at the overall viability:

The key observation points as outlined by the Alphabet Zones in the diagram above are as follows: A. Of the 4 centers, the CU sorting and CU Paper unit are the ones which tend to generate surplus with CU sorting unit being a consistent surplus generator. CU Paper unit, while can generate a lot more profits has its own internal cycles of working capital going into product making and revenue being realised with a time lag. Rajendranagar on the other hand has a steady deficit pattern and in the duration of May to Jul 2010 was at its lowest. Beginning of operations at Ambedkarnagar also resulted in further deepening the deficit as the income from recyclables, compost and door to door service fee has a time lag. A series of measures initiated during this time including the below mentioned resulted in a firming up of a upward trend in the overall viability in the following months a. Strengthening of the Paper product development and standardizing the offering b. Optimizing the route of collection of the waste for the CIGs for Rajendranagar c. Income beginning to come from Ambedkarnagar

B. Is the phase where the income from sale of paper products produced in the Zone A period has made the overall viability look better. C. Between B & C you can find a cyclical pattern and with additional focus on improving the sale of recycled product in addition to minimizing the deficit from the operations of each unit can generate a sustained reduction in overall deficit D. This zone shows a culminating in Dec 2011 shows a healthy upward trend in the operations in all the units with the CU paper unit having the highest 4 month average surplus of Rs. 38, 225. Kasa Rasa Overview Kasa Rasa is a 2,500-square-foot waste management facility near the National Games Village in Koramangala. It began its operations in Jan 2011. It can process 1.5 tons of recyclable material each day. Kasa Rasa gets its waste from 2 sources. First from around 1,000 surrounding homes and apartment complexes where waste is picked up by an auto. From the itinerant waste pickers who sell their waste at the center. With further segregation At its center, recyclable waste is segregated and organic waste is composted. Both are then sold to recyclers. For the case of this study, the following costs have not been included in analyzing the viability of Parivarthana: 1. Organizational Setup a. Cost of hiring of the team b. Training the team with the basics of Solid Waste Management c. Managerial inputs and expertise for the creation of business plan and monitoring mechanism of activities 2. Infrastructure a. Recycling Unit near NGV b. Organic Waste Converter & Shredder 3. Indirect Costs a. Project Managers salary b. Co-ordinators Salary c. Travel costs to interface with the external agencies d. Telephone costs e. Accounts Admin and general co-ordination

Since this project was introduced after the Parivarthana project, we have a improved monitoring mechanism. We have measured the expenses incurred for of Accounts Admininistration and general co-ordination, Travel costs to interface with the external agencies and Telephone costs. , We get to see the impact of adding these additional indirect costs into the viability gap. As we can see the shortfall in meeting the costs has been reducing and has been falling down in a steady manner. With improved utilization and increase in the coverage of additional houses & apartments further viability gap can be reduced.
60000

40000

20000

0 Viability Gap with no overheads -20000 Total income from all the sources Total Input Cost

-40000

-60000

-80000

-100000

-120000

Viability Gap The key observation points from Kasa Rasa are as follows: A. In this phase, waste was brought in from the Door to Door waste collection from households in Ejipura and Apartment complexes from Ejipura and Koramangala. The staff were hired and basic operations were streamlined. B. In this phase, the operations were expanded to include purchasing of waste from Contractors doing door to door waste collection in Koramangala 3rd and 7th Blocks. C. Streamlining of operations, Revenue from Compost and income received for Storage of Ewaste from Saahas LLC added to the reduction of viabililty gap for the duration of Nov and Dec 2011. However the extent of shortfall that can be met through the above 2 measures may not be sufficient to cover all direct expenses and also the additional minimal indirect expenses considered in the following graph.
0 Mar-11 Jun-11 May-11 Apr-11 Aug-11 Feb-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Jul-11 Nov-11 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 -80 -90 Viability with Travel, Admin & Coordinator / Total Costs Dec-11

Viability/Total Cost withno overheads

Key Learnings As can be seen from both the case studies, there is enough promise in the decentralised solid waste management to meet a significant portion of the costs required to run the day to day operations. However it will not be entirely operational breakeven (covering direct costs) unless a revenue stream such as the Paper Product Making unit in Christ University or the eWaste collection center in Kasa Rasa center. In addition, there is a deficit for meeting the indirect costs. Its ability to cover for the setup costs appear to be a challenge from these 2 experiments.

Recommendations:
1. BBMP needs to establish a mechanism to pass on portion of the garbage cess collected as part of the Property Tax from the households to the organizations working on DSWM to help offset their direct costs 2. A mechanism has to be established where BBMP itself takes care of transporting waste into and Processed outputs out of these centers after processing (Sorting or Composting) will also aid their viability 3. BBMP should invest in setting up DSWM facility with ability to manage both dry and composting of wet waste in each ward of Bangalore. They should explore value addition on the lines of the Paper Recycling Unit at Parivarthana or the E-waste Collection Center at Kasa Rasa 4. Special focus needs to be given to compost the wet waste in a decentralized manner as there is no value addition in transporting of this heavy wet waste into the landfills. Setting up of decentralized Infrastructure for wet waste management allows for saving the wasteful expenditure of transporting and dumping them in the landfills which is the current practice. 5. As per the existing Municipal Solid Waste Management Act 2000, BBMP should ensure stricter compliance from the Apartment complexes in their adoption of Waste Management Practices. It has been found that many apartments have no mechanisms for waste management

Role of Urban Local Body & other authorities Bangalore

Activity Maintenance of Select Roads / Areas through Mechanical Sweeping Authority Involved BBMP Roles & Responsibilities 1. Sweeping of roads by deploying mechanical sweepers on a daily basis 2. Manual mopping of roads for any residual silt on the road 3. Deploy manpower for continous cleaning of VIP stretches 4. Cleaning of kerbs and sidewalks of the roads 5. Transport silt collected through mechanical sweeping to the designated locations Contract Terms 1. 5 Year agreement at a per month amount fixed. 2. Lumpsum amount with additional payment in case of change of designation location for depositing silt. Rs.10 per km of travel will be paid in case of change in transfer location 3. Adhere to all laws, procure equipments, permits, manpower required & maintain necessary records of Decision Makers Chief Health Officer, BBMP is the key decision maker pertaining to Setup, Procurement practices, Maintenance costs. Any modification will include Joint Commissioner (Health), BBMP & Commissioner, BBMP Stakeholders Contractor

Dry Waste Collection Center

BBMP

Manage door to door collection of municipal solid wastes [MSW], segregation and management of recyclables such as plastic, paper and other nonbiodegradable wastes as a measure to reduce the quantum of waste to be transported to the scientific landfill sites.

1.

2.

3.

4.

work and pay premium for insurance. 2 year contract period Door to door collection of source segregated nonbiodegradabl e recyclable waste from 1000 households in the first year and upscale it to 2500 households in the next year. Storage and secondary sorting of such recyclable waste into different categories The ultimate aim is to

Additional Commissioner, for each BBMP Zone for Setup (If setup costs are above 1 lakh. In case it is less than 1 lakh it will be under the purview of Ward Level Executive Engineer), Procurement practices, Maintenance costs(BBMP to provide water & electricity will be facilitated). There are 8 zones in BBMP.

2nd Party Resident Welfare Association / Funding Agency/ Company 3rd Party Optional Implementing agency (SHG, Collectives, NGO or any form of organization)

reduce the amount of MSW that needs to be transported out of the city. 5. These are noncommerc ial contracts. No payment will be given by BBMP. Partnerships for Waste Management BBMP Setup, Procurement practices, Maintenance costs Setup, Procurement practices, Maintenance costs Setup, Procurement practices, Maintenance costs If the costs for Setup, Procurement practices, Maintenance CHF International as Funding Agency

Awareness Creation

BBMP, KPSCB

Biogas

BBMP

CHF International as Funding Agency

Enumeration of BBMP Waste Pickers (1 Report for CHF on registration.doc)

1.

Appoint nodal officer at BBMP central level and in all ward offices who

AIW, NGO Partners, SWMRT and CHF International as

coordinate the efforts and work with one of NGO representative that will stream line the process of registration and enumeration. 2. Allocate budget a. printing the registration form b. to hire people for few months to do complete registration process , c. to collate and manage database and integrate into BBMP system d. to design and issue identity card to wastepickers 3. Integrate

costs are more Funding Agency than 1 lakh, then tendering at the BBMP Commissioner level is required. If the amount is lower than 1 lakh, then can approve the Chief Engineer can approve.

4.

5.

6.

7.

wastepickers in the DWCC and Bio gas plants Create a special social security scheme for wastepickers using the available budget for urban poor Easy access to various opportunities under SJSRY to start new business as a cooperative Work with SWMRT to look at trade licensing options for waste informal sector Print brochures that will inform wastepickers about the social security schemes they are eligible to

and provide easy process for access through BBMP1 or Bangalore One. We will provide assistance in collating information.

Abbreviations
AIW Alliance of Indian Waste Pickers. BBMP - Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike CSA - Centre for Social Action MSSS - Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi SWMRT - Solid Waste Management Round Table Bengaluru

Data Sources
These following documents are available with CHF International and have been submitted by the Parivarthana and Kasa Rasa management teams. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. CHF_Parivarthana_31.12.2011_CU sorting station.xls CHF_Parivarthana_31.12.2011_CU Paper Unit.xls CHF_Parivarthana_31.12.2011_R Nagar.xls CHF_Parivarthana_31.12.2011_Amdedkar Nagar.xls CHF_Parivarthana_31.12.2011_Summary.xlsx

6. CHF_KasaRasa_31.01.2012.xlsx

References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore 2. Towards a sustainable waste management system for Bangalore http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/paper/wms_for_bangalore/sustainable_waste_management_system_for_Bangalore.pdf 3. Decentralized Solid Waste Management - http://www.borda-net.org/basic-needs-services/decentralized-solid-waste-management.html 4. Decentralized Solid Waste Management in Small Towns and Cities - http://www.adb.org/documents/events/2009/CCEWeek/Presentation-AdnanAliani-Solid-Waste.pdf 5. CHF Solid Waste Management - http://www.chfinternationalindia.org/?q=node/147 6. Slum Communities Achieving Livable Environments with Urban Partners (SCALE-UP) http://www.chfinternationalindia.org/?q=node/48 7. Centre for Social Action Christ University (Bangalore) - http://www.chfinternationalindia.org/?q=node/80 & http://csachristuniversity.in/ 8. Kasa Rasa http://www.chfinternationalindia.org/?q=node/191 9. Ramesh: Waste-pickers' views to be reflected in policy - http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/GUJ-AHD-waste-pickers-views-to-be-reflected-in-policysays-ramesh-1799139.html 10. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike - http://bbmp.gov.in/ 11. Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi - http://msss.in/ 12. Solid Waste Management Round Table Bengaluru - http://www.swmrt.com/ 13.