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.