SWM cess & recent headlines
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP) has proposed a Solid Waste Management (SWM) Cess of ₹100 per month for each household
Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) levy user fees or SWM cess as per the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
According to these guidelines, ULBs must collect user fees/cess for SWM services provisions provided.
ULBs typically charge about ₹30-50 per month as SWM cess, which is collected along with property tax.
ULBs are now considering revising these rates and imposing higher charges on bulk waste generators to meet a portion of the costs incurred in providing SWM services.
How has Bengaluru been handling its solid waste management
Offering SWM services is complex and resource-intensive.
In a city like Bangalore, an urban resident generates about 0.6 kg of waste per day, totalling 0.2 tonnes per person per year.
Overall, Bangalore generates about 5,000 tonnes of solid waste per day.
Managing this volume of waste requires around 5,000 door-to-door waste collection vehicles, 600 compactors, and about 20,000 Pourakarmikas.
SWM services comprise four components: collection, transportation, processing and disposal.
ULBs package collection and transportation together, and processing and disposal together.
Collection and transportation are resource and labour-intensive and come up to 85-90% of the SWM budget, whereas only about 10-15% is spent on processing and disposal of waste.
Challenges
Solid waste generated in Indian cities consists of about 55-60% wet biodegradable material and 40-45% non-biodegradable material.
The portion of recyclable material in the dry waste is minimal, only about 1-2%, with the rest being mostly non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste.
Although 55% of the wet waste can be converted into organic compost or biogas, the yield is as low as 10-12%, making both composting and biogas generation from solid waste financially unviable.
Typically, operational revenue from waste processing facilities covers only about 35-40% of operational expenses, with the rest subsidised by the ULB.
It also face other challenges such as extra work of clearing open points and drains, preventing open littering, seasonal changes in waste generation, and sweeping operations.
Additionally, the disposal of non-compostable and non-recyclable dry waste, such as single-use plastic, textile waste and inert materials, is expensive since the material needs to be shipped to cement factories or waste-to-energy projects located about 400-500 km from cities.
Way forward
Although collection and transportation of waste generate no revenue, several strategies can reduce overall expenditure on SWM and lower user charges.
These are segregation of waste at source, reducing single-use plastic, decentralised composting initiatives, Information, Education and Awareness (IEC) to prevent open littering, and asking bulk waste generators to process their own waste.
A balanced approach, combining marginal user charges with efficient operations, could help make our cities cleaner.
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