CLEANING RURAL INDIA

Almitra H PatelMember, Supreme Court Committee

for Solid Waste Management in

Class 1 Cities in India

almitrapatel@rediffmail.com

www.almitrapatel.com

India has recycled its plant nutrients since Vedic times

Surplus Food went to the NeedyUncooked and Cooked waste to animals

Leftovers, flowers + cowshed waste went to compost pits and back to the land.

Until the 1960s, a clean rural India eagerly collected urban waste for composting.

So Indian soils were rich in Carbon 2

In the 1960s, the Plastic Yug made mixed urban waste

unusable

Urea helped soils where Nitrogen was theLimiting Nutrient (shortage prevented growth)

Massive urea subsidy killed composting habit(In SAARC, only India subsidises urea now)

Today Indian soils need Carbon from ‘wet’ waste of both towns and villages to revitalise agriculture.

3

SO, KEEP PLASTICS OUT OF FOOD WASTE FOR COMPOSTING. HOW?Collect plastics and ‘dry’ waste once a week.

Pay nominally for clean separate plastics

Support informal kabadiwala collections thru transport or sorting and storage spaces

Use weekly market 6 days a week for this ?

For non-recyclables, instal mini plastics-to-fuel units for public use, like atta mills

4

MSW Rules say MINIMISE WASTE

Corruption in city waste collection does not want to keep wastes unmixed and usable.

STOP ‘Tipping Fee’ payment on mixed waste.

Give only Support Price on Compost or Biogas

STOP support of scams = ‘Burn’ options like Incineration, Pyrolysis, Gasification, Plasma for low-calorie Indian wastes.

REWARD waste reduction efforts by citizens

5