Potential Hazards due to Municipal Solid Waste Open Dumping in India

Abstract

The massive growth in the generation of municipal solid waste due to the rising food demand, population growth, industrialization, urbanization, economic growth, lifestyles, and other necessities of the global population have embraced the unscientific disposal of wastes in particular with developing countries like India, China, Brazil, etc. Nearly 2 billion metric tonnages of wastes are generated globally each year and nearly half of it is subjected to open burning. As evident from the physiochemical characteristics of the wastes in some of the major cities in India, more than 50% of the fresh waste contribute to organic fraction and has got high energy and nutrient value. In fact, in developing countries, the management of MSW is exacerbated by unscientific practices leading to increased environmental contamination and risk to public health. India is facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge of treating and managing the historical waste, in addition to the large accumulation of fresh daily waste. This paper attempts to enumerate the approaches that should be taken by different institutions in their various capacities to move from open dumps to scientific and environmentally friendly waste management systems embarking on the circular economy concepts. To manage the current situation, appropriate knowledge about waste generation and its treatment are necessary. The current study reveals the data regarding waste generation in different states, highlights the issues with open dumping, and a few methods which can be effectively used to treat solid waste are enumerated.