SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MUMBAI

A Project Report
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
award of degree of Masters of Business Administration

2018 – 2020

Submitted by Guided by

(Akash Bansal & ERP Id-0181MBA005) (Sunita Kaul)

(Abhilasha Bansal & ERP Id-0181MBA009)

(Yogender & ERP Id-0181MBA060)

(Twinkle Verma & ERP Id-0181MBA179)

1
 Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)
Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi
Re-Accredited with Grade “A” by NAAC
Recipient of B-school leadership award from Star News
A-4, Paschim Vihar, New-Delhi,Ph:011-25286442 Fax 011- 25286442

Certificate of Originality

This is to certify that the project report entitled “SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN
MUMBAI” Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree
of MBA is an original work carried out by Akash Bansal, Abhilasha Bansal, Yogender,
Twinkle under the guidance of Dr. Sunita Kaul. The authenticity of the project work will be
examined by the viva examiner which includes data verification, checking duplicity of
information etc. and it may be rejected due to non-fulfillment of quality standards set by the
Institute.

Signature of the student

ERP Id

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 Acknowledgements

 Whatever we do and whatever we achieve during the course of our limited life is just not done
only by our own efforts, but by efforts contributed by other people associated with us indirectly
or directly. I thank all those people who contributed to this from the very beginning until its
successful end.
I acknowledge my gratitude to Ms. Sunita Kaul (Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University
Institute of Management and Research, New Delhi), for his extended guidance,
encouragement, support and reviews without whom this project would not have been a success.

Name& signature of the student

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 Table of contents

Title Page no.

Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : Literature Review
Chapter 3: Details of environmental
issue
a) History
b) Causes
c) Impact
Chapter 4 : Current mitigation and
prevention strategies adopted
Chapter 5 : Conclusions
Chapter 6 : Recommendations

4
 

Chapter-1

Introduction

Mumbai has a coastal stretch of 603 sq km. geographically, the city of Mumbai can be divided
into three sections, namely, the island city (or main city), the western suburbs and the eastern
suburbs. These are also known for administrative purposes as Division I, Division II and
Division III, respectively. The total population of the city amounts to nearly 13million that is
increasing on a daily basis. Such a huge habitat obviously generates a huge amount of waste of
many kinds the management of which is a massive task for the local administration.

5
Waste Generation Mumbai generates waste to the tune of approximately 7,025tonnes per day.
The waste consists of:

• 5,025tonnes of mixed waste (bio-degradable and recyclable)

• 2,000tonnes of debris and silt. The biodegradable waste (wet waste) is made up of vegetable
and fruit remainders, leaves, spoiled food, eggshells, cotton, etc.

Recyclable (dry waste) consists of newspapers, thermocol, plastic, battery cells, wires, iron
sheets, glass, etc. Debris includes construction waste, renovation waste, demolition waste, etc.
Silt comprises earth and clay from drains and road corners. It is estimated that by 2008 such
waste will aggregate 9,000tonnes per day due to increase in the city's population

The generation of waste by an individual depends on the socio-economic conditions to which the
person belongs. For example, a rich family will generate nearly four to five kg of mixed waste
per day; a middle class family will generate between one to three kg of mixed waste per day and
a poor family, in slums, will generate close to 500grams per day.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is formally responsible for the
management of waste in the city. The prevailing approach has been one of collection and
disposal that is, garbage is collected from communities by the municipal authorities and disposed
off at the three main dumping sites that are currently servicing the city.

Garbage collectors employed by various housing societies manually collect the waste generated
at the household level and dump it in the garbage bin at specified street corners. There are around
5,800 community bins in the city. In case of South Mumbai, trucks collect garbage from the
garbage bins and transport it to a transfer station which is located in Mahalakshmi. A separate
transport is arranged for transferring the garbage from Mahalakshmi to the northern part of
Mumbai where the dumping grounds are situated. From all other parts of the city, garbage is sent
directly to the dumping grounds. Nearly 95% of the waste generated in the city is disposed off in
this manner. This largely manual operation involves 35,000 personnel employed by the MCGM
and is collected by a fleet of 800 vehicles, including vehicles hired from private contractors, that
work in shifts each day. MCGM spends about Rs15-20lakh per day on collecting and
transporting garbage and debris with municipal and private vehicles making about 2,000 trips
every day

Time for Waste To Decompose When the waste is dumped, it does not decompose very quickly
and make way for the other waste. The nature of waste being dumped and the time it takes to
decompose, pose a serious threat to the environment as well as human health. Given below are
some examples to understand how much time it takes for various materials to decompose.

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Vegetables, Fruit Skins, Waste Food 3-4 Weeks Paper Bags 1 Month Cloth Bags 5 Months
Wood Pieces 10-15 Years Leather Shoes and Sandals 40-50 Years Iron Sheets 50-100 Years
Aluminium Sheets 200-250 Years Plastic Bags 1 Million Years

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 Chapter-2

Literature review

Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), spread over 4,355sq. km is home to seven municipal
corporations. All Municipal Corporations in India are mandated to look into solid waste
management in their functional domains under the 74th Constitutional Amendment. At present,
all the seven municipal corporations depend upon centralised means of managing waste which is
dumped at assigned landfills post collection. Apart from the corporation, there are multiple
players who play a crucial role in managing the waste. Much of this is managed by informal
sector and now emerging recyclers who are setting up
processes for decentralised waste management

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This paper explores the scale at which different institutions/communities have taken efforts to
successfully manage their waste. Most people are unable to achieve 100% decentralized
management due to lack of appropriate channels for managing
rejects and sanitary waste. More importantly, it is imperative to understand the failure and
limitations of the municipal corporation since they are financially dependent on the centre and
state for their functioning. But despite all those constraints, it makes sense to gauge energy and
material recovery potentials and correlate to municipal waste management. By means of
different examples and a technology provider for bio-medical waste, we are able to make an
impact towards creating greener, sustainable communities.

In retrospect, consumerism is also linked to waste management. Never ending needless purchase
soften leave you with loads of trash behind. The concept of 3Rs need to be rethought and 5Rs
need to come in place- Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Replenish, Recharge and Recycle. That way,
energy and material recovery will be taken very seriously. With that motto, producers will be
forced to acknowledge the materials they use in their products and the packaging of their
products. Without relevant and precise knowledge, expediting solutions would not be realistic.
But to all this, people must come together to persistently work on the issue. That will bring
adaptable solutions to their doorsteps. Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Case study

An Active Citizen: Mr. Subhash Rane, Ward 41, Malad

Subhash Rane, a retired professional from Siemens India took up to
changing the face of his locality after he
noticed garbage on the streets during his morning walk. He requested the
local authorities to collect the garbage.
Over subsequent months, he kept repeating this exercise and coordinated
with the ward officials ensuring waste pick-ups in his ward (Budget). He
noticed that there was no coordination of citizens with the ward officers to
manage effective pick up. Soon, he became the factotum for the community
in regards to waste pick-ups.
According to the Bye-Laws of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai,
if the area has door to door collection, then there is no need for a common
community bin (MCGM, 2006). So he eliminated them streetwise and at the
same time ensured regular pick up. Over time, he has strategically killed the
dumping spots with the help of shop owners, residents and other proactive
citizens. By adhering to these rules, Subhash Rane bridged the gap between
the Municipal Corporation and the citizens. As a nodal contact for Ward 41,
Mr. Rane is now trying to make it a zero waste ward by requesting separate
trucks for collecting wet and dry waste

There is no doubt that decentralised waste management models work. However, there is a lacuna
in managing it completely. All of the cases mentioned in this study do not have any process in
place for their sanitary waste and rejects. Thus, both the categories end up going to the landfill.
Particularly for sanitary waste, Enviro-Vigil does claim that the sanitary pads can be incinerated
9
safely but they are not mandated by law since they are permitted to only pick up bio-medical
waste. This brings attention to the need for making categorisation of different kinds of waste. By
categorisation/classification, the concept of segregation will become clear and this can lead to
zero-waste colonies. That said, there is very little done on incorporating, or even encouraging
such colonies that are managing
their waste effectively. While the Thane Municipal Corporation offers a 5% rebate to those
housing complexes, the other Municipal Corporations aren’t thinking on these lines

CHAPTER – 3

DETAILS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE

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I. HISTORY
Particulars Current 2010-2013

Total Population 2.3 Crore 1.84 Crore

Waste Generation 7500 Metric Tonnes 9500 Metric Tonnes

(Per Day)

Position in Waste First First

Generation
(in Maharashtra)

Waste Treatment 44% 27%

BMC Waste 280 crore annually Fall of 15% - 20%

Collection
Expenditure

11
c
C
W
ti
f
t
3
B
i,H
x
h
lM
fi
d
L
v
s
V
o
e
D
m
r
u
n
a
K
g
Agency Incharge – Municipal Corporation Of Greater Mumbai (MCGM )or Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC)

 It is one of the Richest Corporation in India

WASTE COLLECTON







83% through Collection Bins and 13% house to house collection
15% of the Waste generated is not collected by the BMC
1396 trips has been made per day
Approx. 7025 MT per day waste is collected
Approx. 5025 MT mixed waste (bio degrable and non-biodegrable) is collected
Approx. 2000 MT derbis and silt is collected on daily basis

WASTE JOURNEY

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SCHEMES RUN BY MCGM
For solving and reducing the waste a lot of schemes and a lot of initiatives have been taken by
the corporation of Mumbai some of which are given below:-

 Slum Adoption Scheme

After researches it was found that a lot of population was living in the slum areas, in
which there was no sense of belongingness and it was realised that effort should be made
for motivating and involving the slums for working toward the cleanliness and maintain
hygiene in the slum areas. This scheme was stated by MCGM through the community
based organisations and public participation.

 Social Awareness

For the purpose of increasing the social awareness among the people in the society BMC
comes up with the new thing which is BMC on Facebook and Twitter and also provide its
Toll Free Helpline No. For the sake of people that if anyone have any query and any type
of question they can freely contact on the Toll Free No. And ask about anything from the
BMC experts.

 Advanced Locality Management

This scheme was started for the purpose of increasing the awareness among the people
related to the management of the solid waste by the citizen.

13
 The purpose was that the Wet waste and Dry waste is to be segregated at the house level
so that the wet waste can be further used for composition and the dry waste is to be
collected by the rag pickers and the BMC for the purpose of recycling.
This program success wholly depends on the people participation because if the
segregation is done at the house level that it become easier to recycle the waste and to
decompose it.
In this the activities were funded by BMC and later by residents.

 Recycling Debris
It was one of the initiavitive taken by MCGM to recycle debris in the new construction
related products like bricks, interlocking pavers etc. YUVA, an NGO and City and
industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) collaborated on this purpose to convert
debris and reduce the load of dumping grounds. Today plant at Navi Mumbai converts 3
Tonnes of debris per day, set up in 1999 and recycling debris continually.

 Videos on Website of MCGM

Different types of Awareness videos also have been uploaded on the website of the
MCGM which have been recorded with the different celebrities. The purpose of theses
videos are to segregate the wet and dry waste and to create awareness to use recyclable
products in the daily life etc.

14
ARTICLES

This article was published in the newspaper Hindustan Times in which it was given that the total
amount of the waste generated daily in Mumbai has been increased approx 105 percentage as
compared to the waste generated in the year 1999 per day, the causes of which are described
below.

This was one of the article of the newspaper times of India.

 In October 2018 Mulund, one of the garbage dumping ground in Mumbai was
Permanently closed.
 The reason behind the closure was that it meet its maximum capacity.
 The oder was passed by the Bombay high court in the year 2016 for the closure of this
site and to search for a new dumping ground.
 As the Mulund dumping ground meets its saturation point thats why decision for its
closure has been taken.
 Mulund was one of the oldest and the biggest dumping ground in the Mumbai, after the
closure of which the waste of the Mulund will be dumped at other dumping grounds
which are Deonar and Kanjurmarg.
15
This article is from Times Of India of 2017

 A drop down was noticed of 20% or of 2000 tonnes over the last 4 years after the order
have been passed by the Bombay high court.
 After the stay of Bombay high court on the all new construction of buildings in 2015
 Also segregation at all residential and commercial buildings gone up by 49% from 13%

II.
II.
II.
II.
II.
II.
II.
II.
II.
CAUSES

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Mumbai is a Metropolitan City which is situated on India’s west coast. It has a lot of places
which attracts the tourists from the different cities, states and also from different countries.
Mumbai city is also famous as the heart of Bollywood Film Industry, as we can also say that it is
the hub of movies and also of the celebrities. Every day, tonnes of solid waste are disposed off at
various landfill sites but this is not a complete solution for the Mumbai city to control the solid
waste in the city. Also there is a heavy footfall in the city due to a tourist place and due to the
film city. Almost every person who wants to be a celebrity he comes to Mumbai, due to which
the population is increasing and the resources are limited.

Let’s have a look on some of the major causes of increase in Solid Waste in Mumbai:-

 RESIDENTIAL

One of the major cause of solid waste is the people who are living in the homes. Due to the
products or the things that they use it causes too much of waste and create a lot of garbage i.e.
food waste, plastic, disposable items, leather, cardboards, metal electronic items, yard waste etc.
every owner throw their garbage into there private bins and than it is collected by the garbage
collecting agency and than it is processed for the process of recycle. The waste is recycled which
is possible and another is thrown in the dumping yard and this process continues. If house hold
use most of the recyclable products than this problem can be solved.

 INDUSTRIAL

Industries are the second largest cause of the solid waste management. This include lights, heavy
manufacturing industries, construction sites, fabrication plants, power and chemical plants. In
these type of industries solid waste is produced in the form of housekeeping wastes, food wastes,
packaging wastes, construction and demolition materials, special wastes, medical wastes as well
as other hazardous wastes.Sothe industries are also one of the major cause of the solid waste in
Mumbai.

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  COMMERCIAL

Commercial buildings and the facilities provided by these are also one of the biggest cause of
waste. Commercial buildings and services means big and small hotels, markets, restaurants,
godowns, stores and office buildings. The solid wastes generated from these places includes
plastics, food wastes, metals, paper, glass, wood, cardboard materials, hazardous wastes and
some other type of waste which is not recycled easily.

 INSTITUTIONAL

Here institutions means, schools, colleges, prisons, military barracks and other government
centreswhich are also rated in the top in creating the solid waste. Type of solid wastes produced
from places includes glass, rubber waste, plastics, food wastes, wood, paper, metals, cardboard
materials, electronics as well as various hazardous wastes ans many other countless type of waste
are also generated.

 CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION AREAS

Construction sites and demolition sites also are the one of the source for creating solid waste.
Construction sites refers to new construction sites for buildings and roads, road repair sites,
building renovation sites and building demolition sites. Some of the solid wastes produced in

18
these places include steel materials, concrete, wood, plastics, rubber, copper wires, dirt and glass.
The type of waste produced from area take a long period of time to get recycled.

 M
U
N
I
C
I
P
A
L
SERVICES

The urban centres also one of the source of solid waste in Mumbai and in other different ares of
the country. Some of the solid waste generated by the municipal services includes, street
cleaning, wastes from parks and beaches, wastewater treatment plants, landscaping wastes and
wastes from recreational areas including sludge. So, the government agencies are also creating
and have hand in producing the solid waste.

 TREATMENT PLANTS AND SITES

The plants which provide services to the people of the society are also one of the major sources
of generating solid waste. Treatment plants and sites here refer to refineries, power plants,
processing plants, mineral plants and chemicals plants. The wastes produced by these plants
includes, industrial process wastes, unwanted specification products, plastic, metal parts and
many more things which are not decomposed and recycled easily.

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20
  AGRICULTURE

The agricultural activities from which society get the eatable material to satisfy their basic need
that thing also produce solid waste. The solid waste produced from agricultural activities
includes, agricultural wastes, spoiled food, pesticide containers and other hazardous materials,
which on a small scale are not too much to worry but when put on a large scale that raise a
question related to the future and the people of the society.

 BIOMEDICAL

All those service providers which help in saving the life of the people and provide service to treat
them and to prevent people from different diseases; they also produce a lot of solid waste. In
hospitals, Dispensaries, Nursing homes, Clinics a lot of different type of solid waste is produced.
Example of solid waste produced from these places includes syringes, bandages, used gloves,
drugs, paper, plastics, food wastes and chemicals. All these things require proper disposal or else
they will cause a huge problem to the environment and the people living in the society.

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III. IMPACT
Solid waste damps are seriously spoiling the environmental conditions in developing countries.
Negative environmental impacts from improper solid waste dumping can be easily observed
everywhere in the developing world. The improper management of solid waste impact not only
on life of human as well as animals too. It affects the other natural factors such as land and water
pollution, obstruction of drains and many more.

The following are the impact of improper management of solid waste in Mumbai:

 Poor public health: Improper management of waste material cause lots of harmful
diseases which further cases throat infections, asthma, breathing difficulties, reduce
immunity and many more.
 Blocks of drains system: Due to disperse solid waste from the illegal open dumps often
blocks the drains and sewers. The blockage of drains system further creates flooding and
unhygienic conditions in the City of Mumbai. Mumbai experienced a flood in 2006
which was partly due to clogged sewers.

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 Increase flies breeding: Flies breeding are directly linked with open solid waste dumps. It
was observed that during summer the flies are increasing their population so rapidly due
to these waste dumps and they are very effectual vectors that spread disease in the
community.
 Spreading the malaria and dengue: As tell earlier due to improper waste management
flooding and blocked occurred which further support mosquitoes breed and spread
malaria and other diseases.

 Unclean city: Uncollected solid

wastes from few locations in the city are degrading the urban environment and
 Water pollution: During the rainy seasons, produced leachate from the open dumped sites
is causing serious pollution to water bodies in Mumbai. Further polluted water when used
for food irrigation, bathing and as drinking can expose individuals to disease organisms
and other contaminants.

 Reduce
visibility and
poor air quality:
Due to illegal burning
of collected solid waste in Mumbai city is creation the problem of poor air quality. It is
seen that due to open burning of solid waste on street emit 22,000 tons of pollutants into
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 the lower atmosphere of Mumbai city every year. These pollutants are carbon monoxide,
carcinogenic hydro carbons, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.
Furthermore, it is also causing illness and reducing visibility.
 Occupational hazards: Due to improper management of solid waste cause occupational
hazards such as
strains from lifting,
injuries from
shrimp objects
and traffic
accidents.

 Global warming: It is noticed that improper management of waste also generates

greenhouse gases like methane, which has 21 times more global warming potential than
carbon dioxide.
 Flood: It is noticed that in 2017 Mumbai face the flood the reason of flood is many but
among those one of the reason is improper management of waste. A flood is occurring
because of blockage of drain system which further creates due to solid waste.

 Danger of rats: Proportion of food

waste on open dumps and waste drains are providing an attractive shelter for rats. It was
also reported that these rats are spreading disease, damaging electrical sables and other
materials in the study area.
 Air pollution: Due to burning of collected solid waste causing air pollution issues in
Mumbai city, which further create problem of breathing and asthma.

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 Other impacts: There are lots of other impacts of improper solid waste management
aesthetic nuisance,creating fatal due to liquids and fumes, escaping from deposits of
chemical wastes.

Chapter 4 : Current mitigation and prevention strategies adopted

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 Current Waste Management System

Street Sweeping and Collection of Wastes

In Mumbai, there is manually sweeping on every open roads on a daily basis. In special areas
such as the main roads and the main station roads, sweeping is carried out during the nighttime
hours. The overall length of streets in Mumbai is almost 1,800km. To successfully cover the
entire length, the area is divided into ‘beats’. The beat area is about to 4,000-5,000 sq. m. for the
city area and about 8,000-10,000 sq. m. for the suburban areas. A pair of sweepers is assigned a
single beat.

Collection and provisional Storage of Solid Waste

In the view of MSW Rule 2004, the MCGM had issued notices u/s 368 of MMC Act. The notice
talks about public awareness programmes for understanding the significance of waste
segregation at source. For effective implementation, MCGM has also proposed to accuse fines. It
has also planned to spread the concept of “Advance Locality Management” (ALM) scheme,
which is at present being implemented by a population of 3.27 million throughout the city.

The MCGM, time to time, carries out campaign through newspapers, instruct the citizens/
institutions to assemble their own garbage and store it in bins to be kept at the gates from where
the municipal vehicles would pick them up automatically at specified time. The citizens and the
institutions are also instructed that the municipal authorities would not enter individual premises
for the reason of garbage collection and lifting.

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The municipal authorities have also notify the citizens that the dry and wet waste should be
stored separately, and the wet waste would be collected daily and the dry waste would be
collected once or twice per week, depending on the amount generated.

Collection of waste from society bins is carried out once in 24 hours. There are almost 6,300
society dustbins of different designs and construction provided through out the 5,500 waste
collection point in Greater Mumbai for collection and temporary storage of all waste other than
the remains, silt etc. At present, 83 per cent of the waste is collected through society bins .

Removal and Transportation of Waste

The centre or the major business district of Mumbai is at the southern end of the peninsula and
traffic conditions are very congested during the day. From a lot of parts of the city, a refuse
collection truck can take only one trip to the disposal site in one shift. Therefore, for the sake of
economy, vehicles making this trip carry a large amount of waste. As bulk vehicles are not
suitable for waste collection inside the city, waste need to be transferred from smaller collection
vehicles to bulk transport vehicles to be taken to the disposal site.

Carrying of waste is to passed out by via different types of vehicles depending on the distance to
be covered by them. 60 per cent waste is transported through stationary compactors, mobile
compactors and closed tempos; 10 per cent is through partially open dumpers whereas 20 per
cent is through tarpaulin-covered vehicles, which include silt and debris.

The elimination and transportation of garbage is done mainly in the 2 shifts i.e. morning shift
from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and afternoon shift from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. However, if the condition
warrants, the vehicles are deploy in night shift also. The elimination and transportation of debris,
silt etc. is done in only one general shift i.e. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every municipal vehicles are of
hydraulic tipping type but the contractor vehicles are the open body and tipping type. The
contractors appointed on 3 years term on rate per trip basis or per vehicle shift basis or on per
cubic metre basis.

Though most of the vehicles transport decline dispose off the waste from the collection points to
the disposal sites, a number of them release waste at transfer stations where the wastes are loaded
into larger vehicles for transportation to the disposal sites. In the case of South Mumbai, trucks
gather garbage from the garbage bins and transport to the Transfer Station (TS) at Mahalaxmi.
There are at present about 2 TSs, one situated at Mahalaxmi and the other in the Eastern suburbs
in Kurla. Both the TSs combined handle about 600 MT of garbage everyday, remaining of which
is transported directly to the dumping grounds. A separate transport is arranged for transferring
the garbage from Mahalaxmi to the northern part of Mumbai where the dumping grounds are
situated. From all other parts of the city, garbage is sent directly to the dumping grounds. Nearly
95 per cent of the waste generated in the city is disposed off in this manner (Coad 1997).The
transportation of garbage from the transfer stations is done using 15-20 cubic metre Trailers and
Bulk Refuse Carriers. It has been observed that the TS at Mahalaxmi is capable of handling at

27
least twice the present load and is at present poorly utilized (Coad 1997). For removal and
transportation of the garbage, 6 municipal workers and 1 Mukadam (labour contractor) are
deployed with each refuse vehicle, Municipal Corporation’s or contractor’s, whatever the case
may be. The worker uses 2 baskets and 2 iron rakes per vehicle.

Disposal of Municipal Solid Wastes

Disposal through Dumping

The Municipal disposes waste through landfill or land dumping method. At presently there are 4
dumping sites in operation. Waste is bring here from various locations all through the city as
well as from the TSs at Mahalaxmi and Kurla. Refuse and debris are leveled at these sites by
means of bulldozers and the landfill compactors. The land filling passed out here is open dump
tipping. At presently there are 3 landfill sites in Mumbai which are: Deonar, Mulund and Gorai.

Amount of Waste Disposed at Dumping Sites

Location Area(hectares) Quantity of MSW

received(Maximum)(TPD)
Deonar 111.00 6826
Mulund 25.30 598
Gorai 14.50 2200
Total 150.80 9624

Of all the waste disposal sites, Deonar receives 70 per cent of the total waste generated, as this is
the largest of all the three dumping sites with an area of 111 ha. All the dumping grounds are
almost 30-40 km north of South Mumbai, which is generating 48 per cent of the total waste of
the city. As a outcome, transportation costs of waste are pretty high and estimated to about Rs.
16 lakhs per day. Costs for maintenance of dumping ground, waste transportation and take on
charges come to Rs. 126 crores per annum and comprise almost 28 per cent of the total budget

28
allocated for SWM (Davis n.d.). These sites need to be upgraded and the waste appropriately
treated as it has been likely that they will last for another 5 years

Increasing population of the city has required people to resolve near the dumping grounds.
Densely inhabited areas now surround the landfill sites. This has led to a situation where the
residents have starting making complaints of environmental pollution caused due to burning of
garbage and foul odour.

Decentralised Methods for Waste Disposal

The Corporation has newly issued a work order for establish a centralized treatment facility on
Built-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis. This action facility will be prepared with imported
autoclave and shredder machines to deal with different categories of bio-medical waste (MCGM
website, Jul. 2005). A Waste to Energy and Compost Plant for 3600 TPD has also been
proposed, although no date for commissioning has been indicated (SWM Cell, AIILSG, 2003).
Wet or biodegradable waste is disposed through the procedure of composting by adopting the
method of vermi-culture and dry or recyclable waste is disposed by direct sale to the recycling
unit by rag-pickers. A few places for example, for example at the (BARC) Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre plant and at the Shatabdi Hospital plant, wet i.e. biodegradable waste -
specifically waste from the canteen in the case of the BARC plants and waste from nearby hotels
in case of the Shatabdi Hospital plant - is transformed to bio-gas through the process of bio-
methanation. Wet waste from markets is converted to high quality compost manure called
“Vermi gold” at the vermi composting plant which is located in Dadar. Waste disposed in this
way throughout the different waste management units under various organisations adds up to 370
MT per day. Of the total waste generated in the city, this amounts to 5 per cent. Thus the need
for encouraging waste disposal through such decentralized units becomes evident. The list of
decentralized facilities existing now in Mumbai.

Decentralised Waste Disposal Centres, Mumbai

S.No Organisation Method of Disposal Quantity of waste

disposed (TPD)

1 M/S Excel Industries Converting to organic 240.0

Ltd at Chincholi manure
Dumping
Ground*

2 200 active ALMs Vermi-composting 50.0

through out the city (Individual
or Community based)
3. 5 T plants at Dadar Vermi-culture 15.0
(market waste),
Versova and
Colaba
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 4. Stree Mukti Composting 21.0
Sangathan’s (SMS)
composting units

5. Waste collected by Recyclable dry waste 1.0

Parisar Bhaginis of
SMS
6. Approx. 30- 40 Composting 1.5
Municipal Gardens
Composting 1.5

Total 369.25

Recycled Waste in the Informal Sector

As in all the Indian Cities, even in Mumbai, there are street and dumpsite rag pickers, the
middlemen door-to-door waste collectors or the roaming waste dealers and the waste recycling
workers involved in recycling part of the solid waste generated. But, a important part of this
waste is disposed off for recycling at the household level itself. This recycling material reaches
the middlemen involved in the recycling trade from where it reaches the processing and
manufacturing units - small to large-scale. Middlemen accept every type of waste as long as it
has market value in the waste recycling sector.

According to MCGM, there are almost 50,000 to 60,000 street and dump site rag pickers in
Mumbai city, of which 60 per cent are the women, and 20 per cent are the men and 20 per cent
are children. Further, door-to-door waste collectors and recycling workers total 80,000 to
100,000 in the whole city. So, there is already a large section of workforce in the entire recycling
sector in Mumbai, part of whom would be trained to collect SWM. This is what SMS has done,
as we would see later on.

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Chapter 5 : Conclusions

31
Disposal of the wastes

With growing urbanization, land accessible for dumping and creation of landfill sites for disposal
of waste is becoming unavailable. There are 4 landfill sites in the MCGM area only, whose likely
lifespan remains only for 5 years. MCGM is going to discover it difficult new waste disposal
sites in the coming future to take care of present level of waste generation and generated by the
new population.

Lack of Participation/ Communication

It has been established through investigation that in the case of Mumbai, there has been an
absence of communication between the local government and the communities. This is due to the
various backgrounds of communities and the difficulties of everyday life of citizens due to the
city morphology. In addition to this, since the wards of the city are as big as any Class I city, but
the ward offices have very huge responsibilities. People are fully dependent on MCGM for
cleanliness of their locality and there is no citizen’s participation or decentralized mechanism to
keep the locality clean.

It is concluded that the MSWM in Mumbai is facing lots of challenges and that there is a lack of
management and a lack of system approach on all levels. The main problems are shown to be
related to politics and people’s mindset. The recent MSW situation in Mumbai faces quite a lot
of highly complex problems that are deep-rooted in different societal domains, on various levels,
involving various sectors and stakeholders with separate interests and perspective. Since problem
is bounded with various structural uncertainties, the solutions are not very easy to find. In order
to address these many issues there is a need of a more holistic approach.

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The general conclusion is that it is not sufficient that a small part of the society, with partially
opposing interests, is taking initiatives to improve the MSWM in Mumbai. In order to achieve a
sustainable long-term solution, coordination and a more holistic system approach is necessary.
The MSWM system can be seen as a typical case of a socio technical system. Changes in such
systems involve several actions in different areas (e.g. social, technical, financial, institutional)
and on different levels in the society. It is clear that the current challenges regarding the MSWM
in Mumbai cannot be solved solely through technical means. To support the technical solutions,
it is important to view the technical systems as a part of a bigger socio technical system and
incorporate them with organizational and political solutions as well. Hence, participation from
and interactions between different stakeholders and actors is necessary in order to develop
support for policies.

Quite a lot of rules and plans have been put to legal force accompany by some initiatives with the
intentions to get better identified shortcomings, such as ALM, PPPs and the Parisar Vikas
Program. However, most of these actions have failed to be successful because of to financial and
institutional obstacles. The harms known as most prevailing were the inadequate implementation
of rules, lack of coordination and difficulties to obtain funds and revenues. The lacking
implementation of rules together with poor coordination throughout the society has left the
current MSWM with large inefficiencies, and financial constraints have abandoned many
promising projects with huge losses.

Concerning the promising approach of PPP, there is must to take it to the next level in order to be
able to force private sector efficiency into the SWM of Mumbai. As value of the waste is the
most important reason for private sector input, it is key to understand the market for processed
waste products such as compost and RDF. Standards, policies and regulations need to be put in
place in order to mitigate the revenue risks.

The inquiry whether to aim for a centralized or decentralized operational MSWM model in the
future is proven to be difficult. There are some advantages and drawbacks with equally
centralized and decentralized models and a lot of external factors must be taken into account. So,
a mix of centralized and de centralized MSWM was supposed to be the model seemingly to be
most beneficial in the case of Mumbai. For example, separation of MSW would most probably
be more efficiently carried out on a decentralized, local level. On other hand, treatment and
processing of MSW seems to be the best carried out on a centralized level. Several activities
such as transportation would maybe become more efficient and the facilities would be easier to
check.

To be long-term sustainable, there should be need for a broader system point of view, putting
SWM and urban planning into the circumstance of global resource management. The concept of
SWM should not be limited to only handle current problems related to treatment and disposal,
instead it should be extended with the aim to solve resource management issues related to the
unsustainable production and consumption patterns. In order to do this, there is a need for a
worldwide shared vision among the involved actors.
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It is significant to understand that sustainability is not a fixed condition but rather it is continuous
and constantly changing process where resource management, technical solutions and
institutional changes are made with aim to make overarching coordination and optimization
effectively and efficiently. To enable sustainability on a global level we need to transform the
relationships between society, environment and technology. Waste should not be longer seen as
an unprofitable product but as very useful resource.

CHAPTER- 6

RECOMMENDATION

34
RECOMMENDATIONS
To bring back Mumbai from this trap this city required to practice certain ways through which
proper management of solid waste accrued like in Pakistan where there are no municipal
authorities who provide facility for the collection and disposal of solid waste. To solve this
problem they use to scavenging by themselves, perform natural biodegradation of organic
wastes, burning at the initial point of disposal and local self-help.

 Reuse: It is the duty of citizens to reduce the garbage in city. It can be done by various
things. Recuse is one of the technique through which solid waste can be minimised for
example using the gam bottles for other household purposes.
 Using environment friendly bags: By avoiding using plastic bags it help the environment
as a whole. Simple habits like carrying a cloth bag while going shopping will be helpful
to reduce the plastic bags.
 Recycle: We should segregate our garbage at source. Wet garbage can be recycled by
composting or vermi-composting in our backyard or in the victinity. This can be further

35
 become good manure that can be used for gardens and lawns. The dry garbage can be
given to the rag pickers who sell it to re-users.
 Reduce:It is shown by the Municipal corporation budget that 28% is spent on
transportation of waste. As the data shown it is required to reduce the waste by cutting
down on transportation. It is the duty of every citizen of Mumbai to work for reduction of
waste generation in Mumbai.
 Awareness:It is required to increase the awareness about the proper management of solid
wasteto the tourist. So that they will not throw the garbage here and there especially
plastic bottles and bags.
 Rules and fines: It is further required to charge fine by those people who spoil the beauty
of nature by garbage.
 Go green: To control the parent air pollution it is required to grow more and more trees.
If one house will grow one tree it can be lead to thousands of trees in Mumbai which save
our life from the harmful gases. By grow tree it also help to reduce the risk of floods
during rainy seasons.
 Waste to energy: Waste to energy is that technology which can be used for residual waste
uses. This is that method by which dumping can be reduces at a significant level in
Mumbai.
 Family bins:Family bins are rarely used in emergency situations since the require an
intensive collection and transportations system and the number of containers or bins
required in likely to be huge. In the later stages of an emergency, however, community
members can be encouraged to make their own refuse baskets or pots and to take
responsibility to empty this at communal pits or depots.
There are many more things are required to do to support our solid waste management
such as proper training, availability of qualified waste management professionals,
accountability among the solid waste management system, proper funding for waste
collection and many more.

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