Can there be a city with no landfill? Indeed this is a dream to come true. This presentation provides a tool box of strategies that we could consider to move towards this aspiration. There are not many options left - landfills one day will have to be built on the Moon!!

1. Slide 1
Cities Without Landfills
©2013 Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation
By
Dr. Prasad Modak,
Director, Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation

2. Introduction
As cities grow, landfills grow
More landfills mean – more consumption, more waste generation,
less efficiency in recycling
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3. Mulund, Mumbai Dumping Ground 2000
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4. Mulund, Mumbai Dumping Ground 2012
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5. CAN IT HAPPEN?
‘ZERO WASTE’
CITY
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6. Strategies – Taming consumption
Twenty top cities in India
accounted for 60% of the surplus
income.
Annual household income growth
in these 20 cities averaged at
11.2% between 2005-08.
Spending gets a 52% boost as
households move into the middle
class
Requires major awareness
programmes, Life cycle
considerations, Green Public
Procurement
Picture source: http://revista-amauta.org/2009/07/consumption-the-root-cause-of-climate-change/
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12. Strategies – Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
Waste management in a city has two critical
stakeholders - the formal and the informal
sector.
High recycling rates - the
collection, sorting, and recycling efforts of
informal waste pickers1
Alliance of Indian Waste Pickers (AIW) is a
national network of 35 organizations, waste
pickers and/or itinerant buyers in 22 cities.
ExNora in Pune, Stree Mukti Sangathana in
Mumbai, SEWA in Ahemadabad and Chintan
in New Delhi….
1. Solid Waste Management in World's Cities, UN HABITAT, 2010 available at
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13. Houses
Offices
Market
Formal
collection
(mixed)
Informal
system
(recyclable
s)
Dhalaos
Dustbins
Municipal
truck
Landfill
Waste
pickers
Small
Kabaris
Big
kabaris
Recyclers
Thiawalas
SWM system - India
Source: CHINTAN. "Space for Waste:Planning for the Informal Recycling Sector." New
Delhi, 2003
Re-
cycler
s
Big
Kabaris
Small Kabaris
Thiawalas
Waste pickers
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14. Institutional considerations
• Formalizing informal sector – A challenge
Can form union and partner with city administration or with
Corporate to assist in Extended Producer Responsibility
(EPR)
• Mumbai waste pickers are involved with ‘Tetra pak’ for
segregation and Coca-cola for shredding PET units
Strategies – Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
©2013 Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation

15. We need to provide space: Planning considerations
Strategies – Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
Category Norm per
1,00,000
populatio
n
Guidelines
Waste
pickers
215
Each waste picker handles 60 kg of waste per day and
requires 60 sq ft of space near the dhalao for segregation
Other
workers
90
Each worker requires 125 sq ft of space near the kabari
godown for segregation as well as road space for
transportation
Small
kabaris
6
3000 sq ft has to be allotted in a shopping centre to each
small kabari for segregation and storage of about 1500 kg
of waste, and shelter for workers.
Thiawalas 33
Thiawalas are located near markets and call centres and
each thiawala collects waste from 150 shops and
establishments daily
Big kabaris 1.5
The big kabaris need storage space of 60,000 sq ft for
roughly 60,000 kg of waste which they collect weekly from
the small kabaris
Source: CHINTAN, Informal-formal: Creating opportunities for the informal waste recycling sector in
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16. Financial support
• CSR and collection vehicles
• Micro-finance for recycling
Promoting innovations
• R&D centers cross-function as ‘innovation centers’
• Prostheses Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand uses
aluminium ring pulls of beverage canisters containing
Titanium to produce prosthetic limbs
Strategies – Bridging Informal Sector with Formal
Source: Prosthetic Foundation Official Website http://www.pofsea.org/
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17. • Get value from waste,
• Substitute virgin resources
• Create green jobs, with better working conditions for the Waste
Pickers. The waste pickers are provided with uniforms and safety
equipment.
• Promote entrepreneurship,
• Encourage community as well as Corporate involvement,
• Avoid long transportation
• Reduce burden to the landfill
Strategies – Decentralized Material Recycling Hubs
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18. Weigh bridge
Sorting
Inert Storage
Organic
storage
Bio-
methanation or
Composting
plants
Material
Recovery
Centre
Innovation centre
Street
lights
Waste Sorting Centres
Gardens
Methane gas for street lights
and to fuel transport vehicles
Processed materials for users
Compost to gardens
Waste Sorting
Centre
Waste
Generators/
Decentralized Integrated Eco-system
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19. Monitoring and Reporting
Targets Examples
Resource efficiency or
productivity
1. Japan’s Sound Material Cycle Society Target Resource
productivity (yen/ metric tonnes) calculated as GDP
divided by amount of natural resources, etc. invested, to
be increased from 210,000 in 1990 to 390,000 in 2010
Waste recycling rate 1. Republic of Korea’s Green Growth Target for Waste
Increase in percentage of MSW recycling from 56.3 % in
2007 to 61 % in 2012.
Waste land filled 1. The EC Landfill Directive Council Directive 1999/31/EC
not later than 16 July 2016, biodegradable municipal
waste going to landfill must be reduced to 35 % of the
total amount by weight of biodegradable municipal
waste produced in 1995 or the latest year before 1995 for
which standardized Eurostat data is available.
Source: EC 1999, Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan 2008, Ministry of
Environment, Republic of Korea 2008, EEA 2010, Lee 2010, Mayor of London 2010/
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20. Towards Zero Waste …
Taming of consumption
Green Public Procurement
Involving Children, Youth and Senior Citizens : Bringing in
Behavioral change
Bridging informal and formal sectors
Following a Decentralized and Integrated Approach
Promoting Waste-Resource Business Models
Commitment and Support of the City Administration
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21. City with No Landfills
A dream to be true!
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22. Thank you
©2013 Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation