Article Details

Sustainable Waste Management Infrastructure for Indian Cities: Need to Focus Beyond Markets | Original Article

Gajendra Mahanand*, in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education | Multidisciplinary Academic Research

ABSTRACT:

In most modern economic systems domestic waste is the end product of a one-way flow of materials. Raw materials are drawn from the environment and transformed through a production process into consumer goods. (Haynes and El-Hakim et al. 1979) Thus, domestic waste is directly related to consumption, standard of living and level of technology of a society. In Europe and the United States, domestic waste production has increased to the point where these areas face what has been termed “the solid waste crisis” (Garrett De Bell et al. 1970). Whereas, the problem of waste is also becoming a grave for the emerging economies like India, mainly due to large population and ever increasing consumerist middle class. As a result, cities are forced to deal with even greater quantities of waste by such ecologically disastrous and economically inefficient means as sanitary landfill, incineration, or ocean dumping (Muhick, Klee and Britton et al. 1968) There are strong drivers at all levels towards a culture of more sustainable waste management. These drivers include those at an international level, such as the Rio Earth Summit, at European level, such as Fifth Action Programme (1993-2000) and at the national level such as legislation of MSW (Handling and Regulation Act 2000), after a series of PILs in the Supreme Court, and courts strict interpretation of Fundamental Right under Art. 21 as the ‘right to dignified life’.