EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

By: Miss. Priyanka Agarwal

Department of Management Studies (B.B.A)
Basaveshwar Commerce College, Bagalkot.
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Abstract

In today’s scenario, urbanization is boon as well as bane for the Earth. The increasing population
and rapid development are challenging the Environmental Sustainability. We should have
effective Municipal Solid Waste Management. The solid waste includes trash from homes,
industries, food remains, wastages etc. Waste must be traced and treated as soon as possible.
Even though, there are different policies to counter this problem, the compliance is a cause of
concern. Having identified this, an attempt has been made to study the effects of urbanization on
solid waste management on the basis of which effective strategies can be developed.

Urbanization

Urbanization refers to the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in the urban areas.
It is shift of population from rural to urban residence. It is the process by which towns and cities
are formed as more people begin to work and live central.

It is relevant to arrange of disciplines including urban planning, geography, sociology,

economics and public health. It is actually linked with modernization, industrialization and the
sociological process of rationalization.

Facts about Indian Urbanization.

 About 34% of India’s population now lives in urban areas according to U.N world
urbanization prospects 2008. Increase about 3% by 2011 senses.
 Out of 121 crore Indians, 83.3 crore live in rural areas while 37.7 crore stays in rural area.

A place is called an urban settlement when,

 A minimum population of 5000 persons at least 75% of male main working population
engaged in Non Agricultural pursuits.
 A density of at least 400 persons per square kilometer.

Effects and Problems of Urbanization.

There are various effects and problems of urbanization. The effects are both positive and
negative as well.
Positive effects of Urbanization

 Creation of employment opportunities

 Technological and infrastructural advancements
 Quality education
 Medicinal facilities
 Improved standard of living

Negative effects and problems of urbanization

 Housing problems
 Overcrowding
 Under employment
 Development of slums
 Traffic congestion

Waste Management

Waste Management refers to all the activities and action linked with managing waste from its
inception to its final disposal. It includes activities like collection, transport, treatment, and
disposal of waste together with control and regulation.

Waste can be any form like solid, liquid or gaseous form and each of them have different
methods of disposal. It normally deals with whether waste was created in the forms that re
industrial, biological and household.

Importance of Waste Management

The most important reason of waste management is to protect the environment and health of the
population. Garbage causes water and air pollution. Rotting garbage is also known to produce
harmful gases that mix with the Oxygen in the atmosphere and can cause breathing problems.
Improper waste management leads to many hazardous happenings. The proper waste
management is really beneficial in all ways either environmentally or economically.

Some important facts about Waste Management

 An average person generates over 4 pounds of trash everyday and about 1.5 tones of solid
waste every year.
 It is estimated that at least 50% of rubbish in our rubbish bins can be re-used or re-cycled
instead of being thrown away.
  It is estimated that each year we generate 3% more waste than the previous year.
Considering this we are supposed to be recycling more.
 Around 50% of the renewable energy comes from gases produced from landfills.
 Once a landfill has reached its capacity, it will be treated and reused as agricultural or
development land.

Facts and Analysis

This paper tries to draw the relationship between population explosion and waste generation.
Population has a great impact on waste generation which in turn impacts the environment and
sustainability. It includes space availability, landfills, loss of natural habitat and over use of
natural resources.

The amount of waste generation depends on two factors. First, the population in a given area
and second is its consumption pattern. As the number of households increase, the waste
generated per house hold also increases. There are several generations of MSW (Municipal
Solid Waste) which are stated below.

Sl.no Source Type of solid waste

1. Residential Food waste, paper, cardboard, leather, wood, glass,

electronic goods etc.

2. Industrial Packaging, construction, demolition waste, production

waste.

3. Agriculture Spoiled food crops waste, agricultural waste.

4. Municipal services Street sweeping, landscape, tree trimming, general

waste from park, beaches etc.
 The following pie chart shows the composition of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

As already stated in this paper, India contributes to 17.66% of the total world population.
Because of increasing growth and rapid Urbanization, bigger and denser will be the cities
resulting in the MSW generation.

In Indian Urban Population, about 130,000 tons per day or 47.2 million tons per day with per
captia waste generation rate of 500 grams/day is generated. 25% of population in India is in
urban regions. The majority of waste generated from people living in urban region is at all
the rate of 188,500 tons per day. At a global perspective USA is considered to be major
nations for the generation of solid waste which releases 229 million tons per year and is
expected to increase by 12% in the year 2015.

Overcoming the problems of waste management along with increasing Urbanization

Solid waste management is an integral part of the urban environment while considering the
sustainable economic growth. Recycling is the process of collecting used materials which is
usually considered as waste and reprocessing it.

The aspect of recycling as referred means of waste disposal has not been fully adopted by the
most of the countries because they have not recognized the positive impact recycling has on
environment. The focus of this paper is to look at recycling municipal solid waste as a means
to achieve sustainable development & economic growth.

Recycling is seen as an Economic development tool as well as an Environmental tool. It

offers direct opportunities to communities. When waste is recycled, the cost of disposal is
reduced because the recycled waste are sold to manufacturers as raw material generating
revenue.
 Recycling is very profitable business; which is as declared; one man’s garbage is another
man’s gold. Therefore, recycling waste in whatever form it is, is a very sound approach to
mounting problems and encouraging development.

Advantages of recycling waste

Economic Advantages

 It reduces cost of disposal and raw material purchase.

 It saves cost on energy
 It increases revenue through tax from landfill
 It creates employment opportunities

Environmental Advantages

 It reduces the amount of waste produces

 It reduces the waste amount of waste disposed at landfills
 It increases the storage of carbon in trees
 Minimizes the risk of present and future environmental pollution and human
health.

Real Time examples waste management

 Ankit Agarwal, an Indian entrepreneur. Hindu temples often throw the spent flowers into
the River Ganges, a venerated waterway. But this just exacerbates the Ganges’s
legendary pollution. Agarwal and his friend Rastogi collect about 1.5 tons of flowers
every day. They work with 29 temples and three mosques. They convert the flowers into
natural Vermicompost, incense sticks and cones.
 KK Plastic waste management company has been building roads using waste plastic for
a decade in Banglore. It has been working with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) since 2002
 BSW (Bagalkot Social Workers) group has implemented the plan of converting waste
cooking oil into bio diesel. CMC’s most of the vehicles run on Bio diesel. They collect
oil from households, hotels, stalls etc at Rs15/ltr, process it and have planned to sell it in
Bagalkot for Rs 55/ltr.
 CMC (city municipal council) collects solid and liquid waste separately from households.
And from liquid waste, electricity is generated and supplied to HESCOM.
 BSW has planned to collect the excess food waste from all the parts of Bagalkot and
prepare natural compost from it. By letting worms eat the food wastage and their excreta
is collected which turns out to be natural compost which will replace the pesticides and
chemical fertilizers.
According to National Recycling Rates, below is the graph indicating total wastage recovery in
million tones and percentage of recycling.

In order to reduce the problems of waste management, the following suggestions need to be
implemented.

 Identifying the recyclable materials.

 Creating awareness to people on separation of waste and making them know that.
 To ensure about 80% of waste is recycled.
 To make people understand the importance of REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLYE.

Conclusion

From the above explanation, we can observe that with increase in the population, the
MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) also increases. Hence, necessary actions should be taken
so as to reduce the waste either by disposing it or recycling it. Proper planning should be
followed by industrialists. People around various cities must be made aware about
various effects of improper waste management. The influence of proper waste
management on human health as well as sustainability. By this we can reduce the
generation of some amount of waste so that, we can create a healthy environment for
humans and animals to live in.