Action Plan:

To help in the waste management of the school, we thought of obtaining a waste management
hierarchy. It contained of four steps:

 Source reduction
 Material Recycling
 Combustion
 Landfilling

Firstly to reduce the waste material it is important that a house to house collection method should
be adopted in the village so that littering of waste can be reduced. Few of the methods like
community bin collection on a regular interval time and putting dustbins in the local areas should
adopted.

Secondly, 3R method for waste segregation should be used. In rural areas, due to lack of public
awareness, most of the waste is in mixed form. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are 3R’swhich have
proved beneficial in various countries for waste management.

Reduce: It refers to reduction in the waste generation by using green elements as raw materials
and or using materials or products that are environment friendly. For example, using plates made
out of leaves instead of plastic plates on an occasion, or using steel plates etc.

Reuse: In this process, the policy of reusing things is being implemented. For example, using a
glass jar to store pulses or snacks. This method not only helps in the reduction of the waste but is
also very cost effective.

Recycle: The goods that cannot be decomposed at house level should be recycled. This contains
goods like paper, plastic, batteries or glass etc. The benefit of recycling is that it helps to reduce
the waste generation and the households can even generate a small income by selling it to local
recycle shops.

Further below an example of resource recovery has been shared:

Energy content of a waste depends upon its moisture as well composition. The following
equation can be used to determine the energy content of a waste. The unit of equation is HHV or
higher heating value. The equation is as follows:
Where, F = Food, CP = cardboard and paper and PLR denotes Plastic, Leather and Rubber.

Coming to the treatment of the waste, there are many ways that the village can adopt to manage
waste such as:

1) Composting: It is a method which also known as decomposition done biologically. Under

this method, people should be encouraged to decompose the biodegradable waste of their
homes that they can further use as manure for their gardens, potted plants etc.
2) Biomethanation: Under this process, the conversion of organic matter is done in an
environment which is oxygen free. This method release biogas which can be used for
manure, cooking or electricity. The villagers can be taught this method with the help of
Panchayat and the biggest advantage of this method is that it is very cost effective as it can be
a substitute to LPG gas in cooking.
3) Landfill: A landfill practice which is secure and santise can be adopted where the waste
collected from house to house can be dump and recycled by the government. To implement
this system, government help is important so that a proper system can be built with efficiency
that can arrange collection of waste from all the houses, offices, school, hospital etc and then
dump the same to be recycled furthermore. The situation that is currently faced is that the
waste is dumped by localities and no further action is taken to recycle it due to which it
becomes a hub to originate many diseases and foul smell.
4) Incineration: This process is same as of combustion where the waste is being dried and burnt
but at a very high temperature. The advantage of this method is that it leads to reduction of
75% of the final waste. Also, it releases heat in a very large amount that can also be turned
into energy generation. This plan can be a little pocket heavy because of which it is important
to take help of government to implement it.
5) Campaigns by the school student: The school students should be taught the value of waste
management and a campaign can be designed where they can teach the villagers the
importance of waste management along with various ideas like usage of utensils made out of
leaves instead of plastic, making pots or vase out of a plastic bottle etc

Based on the above points, we can generate an ideal waste management system:
The methods stated above are framed after a discussion with the school Principal and the
localities. It is important to consider the sensitivity of the poor waste management in that area as
it has lead to catching the attention of the media as well in the past. The two most important
components of waste management are waste collection as well its segregation. Also, public
awareness is also very important.

References:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319979041_Recent_Scenario_of_Solid_Waste_Management
_in_India

https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/5-cool-waste-management-ideas-world-india-can-adopt-6190/

http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anubha/H16.pdf