Scenario of Present and Future of Solid Waste Generation in Metro Cities of India

Abstract

Rapid industrialization, urbanization, population growth and migration from the country side are resulted in Solid Waste generation, which is commonly considered as an Urban Issue.  It is highly related with Economic growth, degree of industrialization and consumption pattern and lavish lifestyle of city dwellers. Solid Waste generation and management is a burning issue all over the world and the planners and policy formulators are finding it extremely difficult to handle this problem mainly because of slapdash and unchecked urbanization. Solid Waste contributes 3% of total Green House Gases Emission Globally, which are culprit for Global Warming and Climate Change. Huge amount of Solid Waste generation and their improper management worsen the air quality in the urban areas which results in health problems. When the urbanization expands, the amount of municipal solid waste increases rapidly even faster than the rate of urbanization, one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization. Ten years ago there were 2.9 billion urban residents who generated about 0.64 kg of Municipal solid wastes per person per day (0.68 billion tons per year). Hence, today these amounts have increased to about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day (1.3 billion tons per year). By 2025 this will likely increase to 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste (2.2 billion tons per year). The main aim of this paper is to quantify the present generation of Solid Waste and project the generation in future by projecting population growth in Metro Cities and find out the causative factors for the same. In the present study, an attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive review of the present infrastructure available, the future requirements to manage Municipal solid wastes and the Organizations and agencies involved in it. The main aim of this paper is to quantify the present generation of Solid Waste and project the generation in future by projecting population growth in Metro Cities and find out the causative factors for the same.

Keywords: Solid Waste, Urbanization, Population, Green House Gases (GHGs)