A Study on Household Waste Management Practices in Gandhinagar City

Abstract

Management of solid waste has always been a serious problem for developed and developing countries. The quantity of waste is increasing at an alarming rate in India due to rapid urbanization and high population growth. The study analyses the waste collection and disposal practices in and around Gandhinagar city. On the demand side, the research examines the behaviour and perception of residents of the city towards the existing waste management practices by GUDA, GMC and private agencies. On the supply side, the study highlights in detail the activities and operations of GMC’s waste collection and disposal system in Gandhinagar city. The findings revealed that the system of waste management at GMC is much better as compared to GUDA and private agencies. The empirical analysis also pointed out that the residents of Gandhinagar were highly satisfied with the services of GMC. Some of the waste management techniques followed by GMC could be replicated by GUDA in treating waste.

Introduction

Solid waste could be defined as non-liquid and nongaseous products of human activities, regarded as being useless (BabaYemi and Dauda, 2009). According to the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Rules 2000, MSW includes commercial and residential waste generated in a municipal or notified area, in either solid or semisolid form, excluding industrial hazardous wastes, but including treated bio-medical wastes (Toolkit for Solid Waste Management, 2012). Management of such solid waste is one of the major environmental issues as urban population growth and economic development lead to increasing generation of MSW (Waste Composition Study, 2009).

The per capita waste generation rate in India has increased from 0.44 kg/day in 2001 to 0.5 kg/day in 2011, fuelled by changing lifestyles and increased purchasing power of urban Indians. There are 53 cities in India with a million plus population, which together generate 86,000 TPD (31.5 million tons per year) of MSW at a per capita waste generation rate of 500 grams/day (Annepu, 2012).

Solid Waste Management involves activities associated with generation, storage and collection, transfer and transport, treatment and disposal of solid waste. Poor collection and inadequate transportation causes the accumulation of MSW at every nook and corner. The management of MSW is going through a critical phase, due to the unavailability of suitable facilities to treat and dispose of the larger amounts of MSW generated daily in metropolitan cities (Kaushal et al., 2012). In view of the sensitivity of the topic, the study makes a systematic inquiry into the existing waste management practices in the city of Gandhinagar covering both the demand as well as the supply perspective.

Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat, is divided into 30 sectors constituting residential areas and commercial complexes. Waste collection and management in all the 30 sectors is the sole responsibility of GMC. There are many small villages in and around Gandhinagar. The outskirts of Gandhinagar fall under the Town Planning (TP) scheme, in which GUDA is actively engaged in waste collection and disposal. The local body of every city or village adopts a distinctive waste management practice. GMC and GUDA provide respective illustration of waste management practices adopted in Gandhinagar and the outskirts of Gandhinagar. In the outskirts of Gandhinagar, there are various areas which have not tied up with GUDA for waste management. Such places have their captive (private) arrangement and are referred to as Non-GUDA areas in this research. The paper makes a detailed inquiry into the waste disposal system at GMC in the form of a case-let discussed in the later part of the research.

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