Waste to Resource: Innovations on the ground

Waste to Resource: Innovations on the ground

Romil BajajEkonnect Knowledge Foundation1st August 2015

Anvaya: Short Film Contest for Environment

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Introduction


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Need for ‘Waste to Resource’

Rising Population

Rising Consumption

Higher Spending Ability

Increase in Waste Generation

Less Space Availability

Reduce/Rethink

Inadequate Infrastructure for Waste collection and

treatment.

Reuse/Recycle

Waste to Resource


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Waste to Resource: OverviewWaste

Secondary materials/products

Compost/Manure

Energy/Fuel

Electricity

Biogas

Building/Construction materials

Raw material for primary/secondary products

Biofertilizer


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Success Stories


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First Zero Waste Colony in Delhi

Mahila Mandal

Kitchen Garden Association

Senior Citizens' Council

Local councilor

Municipal staff

Waste contractors

General residents

•Sarita Vihar, a middle-income residential settlement in South Delhi

•No. of households: 230


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Action Points and Outcomes

Source segregation and on-site composting was considered as the best alternative

Economic and environmental consequences of each alternative

List of available alternatives

Capacity Building Workshops

• After one month's trial period: 2,000 kg of organic waste in the neighborhood pits (30% participation).

• By the end of the second month, 73.3% residents of the Block were participating in the programme effectively.


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Reasons for Success

• Co-operation from the local political representatives.

• Involvement of concerned municipal department.

• High level of participation from the residents.


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Organizing the UnorganizedChallenges:• Issues like sexual harassment, no secure jobs, unskilled, stopped waste

pickers to leave their job of waste/scrap collection.

Solution:

• Foundation of Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) : Trade

union of waste-pickers in Pune, Maharashtra by Dr. Baba Adhav,

President of the Hamal Panchayat.

• About thirty adult women waste-pickers were issued identity cards by

SNDT University for collecting source segregated scrap in the

neighborhood.

• "Convention of Waste-pickers“(1993): Attended by over 800 waste-

pickers.

• As of 2014, it had approximately 10,000 members, both women and men.


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Positive Outcomes

• Establishing scrap collectors as "workers" and scrap collection as "work"

• Integration of waste-pickers into the doorstep collection and management of urban solid waste

• Mobilising around political and social issues• Change in public perception

Benefits to waste-pickers: Improved Earnings: Segregated scrap fetched better rates Reduction in working hours Improved physical working conditions Life insurance claims amounting to almost Rs.5 lakh have been

disbursed since the commencement of the scheme. Co-operative Scrap store: Kashtachi Kamai (earnings from labour)


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Wonders of waste disposal in Kanpur• In June 2008, KNN gave a BOOT (build, own, operate, transfer)

contract for processing and disposing of solid waste to A2Z Infrastructure.

• 46 acres of land was given free on a long lease of 30 years for the project.

Plant Components:Pre-segregation unit

Composting unit

RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) unit

Plastic segregating unit

Briquette manufacturing unit

Secured landfill in place

Plant to process 1500 tonnes per day capacity of solid waste was set up


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Positive Outcomes • Minimizing fuel thefts by installing GPS in all the waste collection

vehicles.

• Improved earnings, social security and health benefits to waste-

pickers.

• Due to integrated waste management approach, very little (around

2%) was to be deposited in the landfill.

• Kanpur Nagar Nigam received the JNNURM award of excellence for

Best City for Improvement in Solid Waste Management from the

prime minister in 2011.

In 2010, A2Z Infrastructure, the private company, invested Rs 110 crore of their own money in setting up a waste-to-energy plant

The plant produces 15 MW of electricity, using RDF produced in-house

Plant has been registered with UNFCCC for carbon credits


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Innovations in waste to resource


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Fabric from Plastic: Arora Fibres

• Has been recycling discarded plastic bottles into polyester staple

fibre since 1994

• Recycles discarded plastic bottles into polyester used as

packaging material

• Factory with the capacity to process 18,000 tonnes of plastic a

year and plans to increase that to 48,000

• The industry depends on rag pickers for raw material.

• Applications: Industries like automobiles, used as packaging

material for beverages, food products, pharmaceuticals, and

consumer and industrial products.


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The Levis Case: Waste<Less• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach.

• At least 20% post-consumer plastic recycled content.

• Plastic bottles and food trays are collected from municipal sites,

cleaned, sorted, crushed into flakes and made into a polyester

fibre.

• More than 3.6m bottles and food trays for 300,000 Waste<Less

jeans.


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From waste to wealth- Chennai

• Joint project of 3 colleges in Chennai.• Plastic waste was turned into the building blocks of their campus.• Building benches, walls and restrooms using discarded plastic

from their canteen• Pet bottle brick technology – wherein plastic bottles are filled

with mud and used to build structures.• Students of the college worked for two months on weekends to

build the benches.• Nearly 3,000 empty plastic bottles were filled air-tight with mud

and sealed together to build three benches. • The colleges and the foundation have also tied up with the Taj

group of hotels to get their used bottles.


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What comes to your mind?

How can this be reused?


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Earthship Biotecture: Taos, New Mexico.• Mike Reynolds: Founder of Earthship Biotecture.• An earthship is a type of passive solar house made of natural

and recycled materials.

• Based on three basic principles:i. Sustainable Architecture: Use of indigenous as well as

recycled materials wherever possible.

ii. Independent from the “grid”: Rely on natural energy sources.

iii. Economically Feasible: Average person with no specialized construction skills should be able to create.

Learn more on: http://www.earthship.com


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Sneakers from Ocean Trash: Adidas

A concept sneaker made almost entirely out of plastic waste and discarded fishnets taken from the sea.


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Some of these nets were even confiscated from poachers by Sea Shepherd environmental activists


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The nets and ocean trash are turned into fibers that can be used in various garments

Adidas plans to use these fibers in their products by early 2016


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Some Benefits of ‘Waste to Resource’

Increased life of landfills

Resource conservation

Employment Generation

Alternate source of energy

Induce Innovations


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THANK YOU !!

Education

Waste to Resource: Innovations on the ground