The puzzle of garbage disposal in India

Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr The puzzle of garbage disposal in India Vishakha Goyal a,b,⇑,1, Mridul Dharwal c,2 a Sharda University, India Vivekananda College, Delhi University, India c Sharda University, India b a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 6 September 2021 Accepted 28 October 2021 Available online xxxx Keywords: Garbage disposal Environment externalities Health externalities SDG 11 NSS 76 round a b s t r a c t Safe garbage disposal is a challenge for every developing country. In India it’s become further difficult due to massive urbanization, poverty and population density. Lack of fund with municipalities and ill defined property rights offer an easy solution to poor households to throw the un-segregated waste in nearby drains/streets/open areas. This unsafe disposal of garbage is creating a challenge to environment by emitting high emission, marine life by choking rivers and sea, creating health externalities and even impacting tourism. Hence garbage disposal in sustainable way is taken care while drafting sustainable development goals. SDG 11.6 is specifically focused on working towards Sustainable cities and communities. To achieve this SDG, it is necessary to reducing the adverse per capita environment impact of cities. This can’t be achieving without the help of safe disposal of garbage. The current paper is focused on the behaviour of garbage disposal by Indian households and how it can be harmful for their own health. To achieve this aim, the study will be using NSS 76th round survey on ‘‘Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition. Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th Online International Conference on Science & Engineering of Material 1. Introduction With the massive urbanisation and high increase in the population, waste disposal is getting a challenge in the cities. The household waste becomes a serious cause of concern particularly for developing nations. The psychological law of consumption motivates more and more consumption. India is a typical example of such development, with increase in per capita income and urban culture, the per capita consumption is also increasing at a massive rate. Solid waste comprises household waste, Industrial waste and biomedical waste. The household waste mainly comprises biodegradable waste like fruit/vegetable peels, paper, wood, waste cloth; non-bio degradable like plastic waste, metal, glass and hazardous materials like used menstrual products, diapers, medicine or human/animal faeces. The organic component of this waste can become a source of energy/ manure if this waste is segregated wisely otherwise it can provide multiple problems. Segregation of garbage can only be possible by the household only, if they are enough aware and they are getting options for its proper disposal. ⇑ Corresponding author. 1 2 0000-0002-4990-4348 0000-0002-7977-4062 Once it is wet garbage is mixed with dry garbage, it’s impossible to segregate it. If the waste is not segregated, it is not possible to recycle/reuse or even dispose in environment safe manner. In India, the municipal cooperation/councils are responsible for waste collection and disposal. They are responsible for efficient system from collection till disposal. Nevertheless, in developing countries, usually municipal corporations don’t have huge funds so even the collection is not from the complete area. This results in heap of waste on the streets or in the drains. Lack of property rights offer a easy solution to poor households and they are motivated to throw the un-segregated waste in nearby drains/streets/open areas. Waste segregation should be done at the source and through specialised waste processing facilities; this waste can be recycled or decomposed with environment safety norms. The waste which is collected by municipal cooperation is not even completely dispose off in safe manner. The landfill sites in the metropolitan cities become a common feature, which narrates the story of inefficient waste disposal by municipal bodies. This has serious repercussions on human/animal and environment health. The efficient waste management is highly required for sustainable development in the longer time. This is the reason that waste management has been taken by UNDP while framing sustainable development goals. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.10.465 2214-7853/Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th Online International Conference on Science & Engineering of Material Please cite this article as: V. Goyal and M. Dharwal, The puzzle of garbage disposal in India, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. matpr.2021.10.465 V. Goyal and M. Dharwal Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx The efficient waste management is the base of most of the Sustainable development goals. SDG 3 which is focused for Good health and well-being can’t be achieved without a well organized and sustainable method for waste management. Untreated waste has serious health externalities which can give rise to different infections, all such infection can be eliminated with proper treatment for waste. SDG 6 is focused for providing Clean Water and Sanitation, if waste is not safely treated, it will contaminated water sources and clean water will be difficult to provide [3]. To develop Sustainable cities and communities is the target under SDG11 [8]. Reducing per capita environment impact of cities is one of the aims of this goal. To achieve this, it is necessary to reduce the emissions generated through anaerobic decomposition (Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emits when organic matter break down in the absence of air). The waste collected in different landfills, generate methane and carbon dioxide while decomposing. If this methane component can be collected, it can be used as can be used to produce clean energy [5]. If this biogas is not captured and release in the environment, it will be treated as emissions. These GHGs (Green house gases) can easily control through proper waste management. In this way, a country will not able to achieve SDG 13 which is focusing on Climate Action. The waste particularly in cities becomes a attraction for stray animals, they eat the biodegradable components and the plastic components floats to natural water bodies. The waste in the drains chokes the efficiency of waste water management and finally the waste moves to rivers or sea. This will be a challenge in achieving SDG 14 and 15 which are focused to protect life below water and life on land [2]. 4. Status of household garbage disposal in India Household waste management is just one component of solid waste management. Though it is a challenge for every developing country, but in case of India it become more complex due to population density. Effective waste management is a major challenge in almost all metropolitan cities of India. Improvements in living standards and popularity of nuclear family made more difficulties. The common practise of waste management in India lies with municipal cooperation or municipal council. They collect the household garbage from the community bins. Recently in some cities, door to door collection of waste is organised by municipalities/municipal corporations. From the community bins, they transport the garbage to landfill sites. An average Indian city generates 62 million tonnes of waste or 450 gm per day per capita [7]. The much serious problem is that this entire waste is not collected by the municipal bodies. Out of the collected waste just 15% is processed (PIB, 2016). Hence the remaining 85% become a litter. The problem if this litter is not just limited to the emission of green house gases but it also extends to health externalities. In absence of facilities for safe disposal of used diapers/menstrual products, people throw it in the garbage along with daily household garbage. In case the child is not using diaper or toilet, then mothers of under-5 children are disposing their excreta garbage or open drains. If this garbage is disposed in the safe manner, it will not create health externalities. When rag picker come in the direct contact, the risk of infectious disease become higher. In such case the whole investment in the construction of toilet or behaviour change become waste. According to Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, total 1, 80,000 Indian households engaged in manual scavenging [6]. The negative externalities of sanitation can’t be controlled in an effective manner until the waste is disposed in safe manner. 2. Objective a) To understand the garbage disposal behaviour of Indian household. b) To understand the impact of garbage disposal behaviour of households on their health and environment. 4.1. Where do Indian households dispose their daily waste? The collection of waste becomes easier for the municipal bodies if all households dump their waste at community bins. Community trash bins are installed in all cities but if some barren land or public place is available then people find ease in disposing their daily trash in such spots. Let’s understand this disposal behaviour of the households. From the above table, it is found that majority of the households are dumping their household garbage either in the open drains or open areas or even on streets (33%). Those households who are dumping in their own dumping spots can’t be considered as safe disposal. In this wasy total (33.07 + 26.78 + 1.55 + 13.59) 75% of household waste is not collected by any civic agency. In this way the opportunity of recycling has totally eliminated. This becomes a major reason behind water logging on the streets and choking of the drains. Garbage thrown in the open or on the streets can give high emissions and water contamination through drain. If such garbage is not segregated that means the wet waste is mixed with the dry water then even the bio-degradable become a source of emissions. From the data, we can find that just 4% of the households are disposing the waste in a sustainable manner. Just 21% of the households are using the community waste sites, from where the municipality can dispose the waste in comparatively safer way. The garbage which is dumped at community dumping spots will be beneficial if the municipally/civic agency has made proper arrangements for its recycling or safe disposal. Most of the municipalities in urban cities of India have limited financial sources and infrastructure. The infrastructure or technology needed for treatment of waste and land availability is a major chal- Community health and environment are public goods which are affected by the behaviour of people living around. If some of the households are disposing their waste in unhealthy manner, this will not only affect them but it will be affecting all households in equal manner. Usually the Indian cities have the combination of planned houses, unregulated colonies and slums. To generate the positive externalities, it is necessary to work on the behaviour change of all households living in a city. Solid waste management has three dimensions; industrial waste, biomedical waste and household waste. For first two, the GOI has well defined regulations but for the household waste, the regulations are not this much strict. Hence in the current study, the objective is to find the impact of household’s behaviour for their daily waste disposal on their health and environment. 3. Data used The present study is using the secondary data. NSS 76th round data set collected by Ministry of statistics, Government of India. The sample collection was done from July to December 2018. The theme of the data set is ‘Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition’. It is all India unit level data covering all states except the villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The total sample size of the data is 1,06,838 households (63,736 in rural areas and 43,102 in urban areas). 2 Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx V. Goyal and M. Dharwal lenge. Lets understand how frequently, waste is collected from the community disposal sites. Low efficiency of municipal bodies in collection of garbage results heap of waste in the streets or burning of trash in the open. In such scenario waste land become a common dumping site for all residents which create environmental and health problems. This creates huge loss to tourism as well. This inefficiency in collection of waste compel civic bodies to channelizing more manpower and resources in cleaning of drains. Table 1 Place of disposal of garbage. 5. Econometric model Source: NSS 76 round (2018). Place of disposal of household garbage 1 2 3 4 5 6 To understand the impact of unsafe garbage disposal on environment and health, the present study has employed binary logistic model. The objective is to find the impact of disposal behaviour on their health and vicinity. The dependent variable in this model is categorised into two outcomes; unsafe disposal and safe disposal. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to find the relationship between household garbage disposal behaviour and its impact on environment and health. The model can be expressed as Percent bio-gas plant or manure pit household’s individual dumping spot(s) Community dumping spot (vat, container, etc.) common place other than community dumping spot (open area/street/open drain) not known others Total 4.10 26.78 20.91 33.07 1.55 13.59 100.00 Table 2 Frequency of collection of waste. 1 2 3 4 WD ¼ b0 þ xD  b1 þ xSD  b2 þ xJ  b3 þ xM  b4 þ xVF  b5 þ xF  b5 Frequency of collection of waste Percent Daily not daily but at least once in a week not even once in a week not known Total 35.02 22.22 23.30 19.46 100.00 Source: NSS 76 round (2018). þ e; Table 3 Total unsafe garbage disposal by households. WhereWD = waste disposal behaviour of the households (dependent variable)xD = independent variables (Stomach problems like diarrhea/dysentery/cholera)xSD = Whether the household faces problem of stagnant water in or around the householdxVF = Whether experienced any flood during last 5 yearsxJ = JaundicexM = Malaria/dengue/chikungunya/encephalitisxF = Whether experienced any flood during last 5 yearsi = number of observations, b0 = constant term, b1 = coefficient of independent variablese = the error or disturbance term Frequency No of households (%) 75.0 1 Total number of households doing Unsafe disposal of garbage 101,628,050 2 Total number of households doing safe disposal of garbage Total 33,896,818 25.0 135,524,868 100.0 Source: NSS 76 round (2018). 5.1. Dependent variable which can be a reason for food contamination. The most common outcome of these two is diarrhoea [1]. As explained in the Table 1, households are divided under two categories; those who are disposing waste to biogas plant/ manure and to community bins are considered as households throwing garbage as safe disposal, rest all households are considered doing unsafe disposal of waste (Table 2).Table 2. 5.2.2. Indicator of environment Environment s such a public god which is necessary for all and if any household is harming it through unsafe disposal of garbage, it will impact alike. In the current model, total 3 variables of common environment problem are taken. If the household don’t have awareness for the safe disposal then it will choke the drainage system. In the developing country, it is little more ambitious to have sewer connection to all households as it requires huge public investment. In India the sewer connection coverage is very much limited. As per the NSSO 69 thround (2015), just 36 percent of urban households have access to sewer connection while only 1.3 percent of rural households have access to sewer connections (Table 4). It is observed that stagnant water is faced by 15 percent of households. Though it is not a serious problem but it gives rise to various other problems. Stagnant water can reduced the life of 5.2. Independent variables The objective of the current study is to find the impact of garbage disposal behavior of household on environment and health so one variable of health (diarrhea) is taken and three variable of environment (Floods, water logging and visible feces) have taken as independent variable (Table 3). 5.2.1. Indicator of health A major portion of daily household garbage comprises organic components. If this organic waste is disposed in safe manner, it can be converted to energy, fuel or manure otherwise it will ferment and create favorable conditions for the growth of microbial pathogens. Household waste also have component like menstrual hygiene products or used diapers have excreta. They create serious health hazards and become cause of different infections. Diarrhoea is a common disease which has simple low cost treatment, yet globally 1300 young children die every day just due to this common infection [4]. It is the most common reason among preventable death, particularly among children under five in developing countries [3]. If waste is not disposed in a safe way, it will contaminate water. It will also attract flies and stray animals, Table 4 Indicator of common health problem. 1 2 3 Common Health Problems Frequency Percent Stomach problems like diarrhea/ dysentery/cholera Malaria/dengue/chikungunya/encephalitis Jaundice 17,994,160 13.3 13,644,924 3,380,905 10.1 2.5 Source: NSS 76 round (2018). 3 V. Goyal and M. Dharwal Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Table 5 Selected indicators of environment. Selected indicators of environment Frequency Percent faces problem of stagnant water in or around Whether human faeces are visible in or around Whether experienced any flood during last 5 years (a: from excessive rain during monsoon, b: from river, sea) 20,650,442 10,881,636 (5977373 + 4866942) 15.24 8.03 (4.4 + 3.6) = 8 Source: NSS 76 round (2018). Table 6 Result of Binary logistic regression on garbage disposal behaviour. Independent Variables Stomach problems like diarrhea/dysentery/cholera Whether the household faces problem of stagnant water in or around the household Whether experienced any flood during last 5 years Jaundice Malaria/dengue/chikungunya/encephalitis Whether human faeces are visible in or around the household premises Constant B S.E. Wald df Sig. Exp(B) .418 .351 .282 .277 .191 .584 -5.394 .001 .001 .001 .001 .001 .001 .004 396156.178 305397.751 288513.228 36901.233 71092.021 409852.217 1848100.404 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 1.519 1.420 1.326 1.319 1.210 1.792 .005 Source: Author’s calculation based on NSSO 76 round (2018). can make sufficient arrangement for dispose the city waste in sustainable manner. If the municipal bodies are able to generate electricity then the expenditure of garbage collection can be financed through it. roads, provide favorable conditions for mosquito breeding. 8 percent of households observed visible faeces in and around, the entire investment of Swachh Bharat Mission can be nullified if the negative externalities of open defecation are not controlled. After Indian declared ODF (open defecation free) still visible faeces are there, this means either due to used diaper disposal in the garbage or due to the fact that households are throwing daily garbage on streets or drains. When this becomes a habit of majority of households, it can have serious repercussions like flood. The households who have experienced flood are categorized into two groups; those who experience flood due to excessive rain (4.4%) and those who are living near sea or river (3.6%) (Table 5).Table 6 Vishakha Goyal: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft. Mridul Dharwal: Supervision,Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition,Project administration. 6. Testing of econometric model Declaration of Competing Interest Binary logistic regression is run on stata software to find the significance of these six independent variables. All independent variables are significant. The beta coefficient for all variable shows a positive relationship, which means if there is increase in unsafe disposal of garbage by households, there will be increase in all independent variables. The low standard error shows the reliability of the data. The most significant variable is visible human faeces. An increase in unsafe disposal of garbage by 1 unit leads to increase in visible faeces by 1.792 units. (Log of odds). The second most important impact is on health of the residents. There will be increase in disease like diarrhoea/ dysentery/ cholera by 1.519 units, if increase in unsafe disposal by 1 unit. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. CRediT authorship contribution statement References [1] R.E. Black, S.S. Morris, J. Bryce, Child Survival I Where and Why Are 10 Million Children Dying Every Year? 361 (9376) (2003) 2226–2234 [2] N. Ferri, United Nations General Assembly, Int. J. Mar. Coastal Law 25 (2) (2010) 271–287, https://doi.org/10.1163/157180910X12665776638740. [3] Gerald T. Keusch, Olivier Fontaine, Alok Bhargava, Cynthia Boschi-Pinto, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Eduardo Gotuzzo, Juan A. Rivera, Jeffrey Chow, Sonbol A. ShahidSalles, Ramanan Laxminarayan. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. Edited by Dean T. Jamison, Joel G. Breman, Anthony R. Measham, George Alleyne, Mariam Claeson, David B. Evans, Prabhat Jha, Anne Mills, and Philip Musgrove. SECOND EDI. Washington DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. [4] Hogan, Daniel, MCEE-WHO Methods and Data Sources for Child Causes of Death 2000-2016, 2018. [5] H.A. Mount, A Garbage Crisis, Sci. Am. 126 (1) (1922) 38–39. [6] A. Ingole, Manual Scavenging in Civic Municioalities, Econ. Polit. Weekly 51 (23) (2016). [7] S. Kumar, S.R. Smith, G. Fowler, C. Velis, S.J. Kumar, S. Arya, Rena, R. Kumar, C. Cheeseman, Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Waste Management in India, Royal Soc. Open Sci. 4 (3) (2017) 160764, https://doi.org/10.1098/ rsos.160764. [8] UNDP, Human Development Report 2019: Beyond Income, beyond Averages, beyond Today. United Nations Development Program, 2019. 7. Conclusion It is clear from the analysis that community diseases can be reduced with effective waste management in the city. The common environment problems can also be reduced through a positive change in one small habit of the households. In order to retain the title of open defecation free status. It is important to maintain system for safe disposal of household garbage. The investment on safe garbage disposal can be done into two dimensions; one to create awareness among households to dispose their daily waste into community bins after segregation. Another area of investment to provide enough finance to the municipality bodies so that they 4