A Question of Waste

Much of what Mumbai throws as garbage every day – a staggering 7000 metric tonnes of refuse – eventually reaches the Deonar Dumping Grounds, further east from Chembur. The Dumping Ground was commissioned in 1926, on 330 acres of land. As Chembur grew, the dumping grounds receded.

It’s not hard to find the dumping grounds. Just follow the rumbling garbage trucks – and your nose – to the landfill of a 110 acres. The air smells of deodorizers, refuse and heat. And though the workers at the dumping ground are given safety equipment, they face enormous health risks. Small fires erupt often, thanks to the heat and the methane generated by the waste.

Apart from BMC staffers, the only people who brave it are firemen and women rag pickers. These intrepid but often invisible women are the ones who keep India’s recycling machinery going. Picking out dry waste from garbage, they ensure that anything recyclable isn’t destroyed. Thin plastic bags, which clog drains and release noxious fumes when burnt, are collected by them.

Curious to find out more, I walked into the Chembur branch of the Stree Mukti Sanghatana (the SMS for short). Apart from running a crèche and a family counseling centre, the organization focuses on waste segregation and on rag pickers. Jyoti Mhapsekar, President of the SMS and a resident of Chembur, says, “Even if rag pickers gather only 5 to 6% of the total waste generated in Mumbai, it reduces the strain on the city’s resources. That much more is being recycled even before the garbage reaches the dump. At the dump too, they manage to gather a lot of the recyclable stuff. But despite their contribution to society, rag pickers are an invisible group, with no bargaining power. We train rag pickers to collect dry waste and make vermicompost from the wet waste.”

Since 1998, the SMS has organized rag pickers into cooperatives called Parisar Bhagini Vikas Sangha. They are trained and empowered to manage their cooperatives. Mhapsekar adds, “When building societies approach us, we interface between them and rag-picker organizations. If waste were to be segregated at source – in our homes – it would help rag pickers to avoid rooting through garbage, exposing themselves to health risks. Rag pickers can then sell the dry waste, and use the wet waste for composting.”

The Executive Engineer at the Dumping Grounds agrees. “The only long-term solution for the garbage problem is segregation at source. For that, building societies must cooperate with us.” The BMC has plans to use wet waste to make compost and even generate electricity. “The answer really lies with the citizen,” says Mhapsekar. “Segregation has been successful in some parts of Chembur because the ALMs there have been supportive. In fact there are more stringent rules on segregation since March 1^st and hopefully citizens will be made aware of it soon.”

Meeting the people who work with waste, you realize that they are the ones with a real vision for Mumbai’s future. One in which the city doesn’t collapse under the weight of its own refuse!

Want your building to do its bit for Mumbai? Call Sunita Patil at 25297198 or visit www.streemuktisanghatana.org for more information.

This article appeared in The Mumbai Mirror, some time in 2006