Waste management plants to become mandatory for establishments

Srinagar, Nov 10: The state government is mulling to make it mandatory for every medical and commercial establishment to have its solid-waste segregation, disposal, and treatment plant.
A Draft Action Plan prepared by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUDD) to tackle pollution due to the solid-waste material suggests introducing penalty against the violation of norms set under Sold Waste Management rules 2016.
“All medical, commercial establishment and other large institutions where bulk waste is produced should process their own waste and set up their own processing units,” it said.
The commercials establishment here in Kashmir includes hotels, restaurants, private hospitals, colleges, and industries.
As per the draft, the city alone generates 400 metric tons of waste each day, which suggest an increase of 18 per cent (350 metric tons in 2013) in last six months.
“Sixty-two per cent of this waste is organic in nature while the remaining is inorganic including seven per cent of plastic waste,” it said.
The entire move as per the draft is a part of the HUDD’s strategy to reduce the waste generation in the city by 25 per cent in next five years.
The draft has predicted 3,604 ton of waste will be generated in the city by 2021. It said that 2685 and 6091 tons per day will be generated in 2031 and 2041, respectively.
Currently, the city has 575 garbage collection points, 110 dumpers, 500 handcarts and 1000-wheel barrows while 30,000 color-coded bins are being procured for collection of the waste.
The draft has also proposed to ban the burning of the solid waste, citing immense discharge of carbon.
“The ban must consider seasonal considerations, as large amount of biodegradable matter is burnt in the autumn months to produce charcoal for warming Kangris over winter,” it reads.
“It is therefore important that the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) support the effectiveness of the future ban on open burning through parallel policies to promote alternative heating technologies,” the draft suggests.
Recently, the NGT report positioned J&K at 31st rank in Solid Waste Management policy while Goa, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu have been ranked as 1, 2 and 3 respectively in view of the scientific management of the waste.