Closing the solid waste management loop through urban-rural partnerships 

Urbanising small towns, growing market-based economies and increasing consumerism necessitate solid waste management (SWM) even in rural areas. A significant fraction of waste generated in rural areas is organic / wet waste, primarily managed at the household level through composting. 

However, the disposal of dry and domestic hazardous waste is of concern. As the country sails through Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0, targeting garbage-free cities and clean villages, a district in Karnataka aims to achieve these twin goals through urban-rural partnerships.

The Karnataka government has been pushing for a sound solid waste management system equally in its urban and rural counterparts. So far, in urban Karnataka, 97 per cent of the wards are covered in door-to-door waste collection and 86 per cent have achieved 100 per cent source segregation.

In rural Karnataka, 7,230 waste collection and transportation vehicles have been procured, and 6,201 waste collection and segregation sheds and 16 plastic waste management units have been constructed as on April 2024.

With these assets in place, the state foresees significant improvement in the rural waste collection and management system in the coming years. In rural Karnataka, door-to-door solid waste collection and, in some cases, end-to-end waste management are carried out through a formal mechanism of partnership between Gram Panchayat-level federations of self help groups (SHG) and Gram Panchayats (GP).

Need for synergies 

Bhadravathi taluk (sub-district) in Shivamogga district is an industrial town with abundant natural resources nurtured by the Bhadra River. The taluk spans 686 square kilometres, encompassing 145 villages clustered in 39 GPs and the Bhadravathi City Municipal Council (CMC).

SHGs manage solid waste in the 39 GPs. CMC carries out SWM activities through their permanent / temporary sanitation staff.

Saahas, a non-profit, is an enabler for efficient solid waste management in this region through the project Sada Shuchitva Shivamogga. The organisation handholds 35 GPs in the Bhadravathi (17 GPs) and Shivamogga (18 GPs) taluk in operating door-to-door waste collection and encourages residents to adopt sustainable practices.

Of the 35 GPs covered in the project, 30 GPs have set up their own Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCC) / Swachha Sankeernas (or clustered with other GPs for a joint facility) to manage / process their wet and dry waste decentralised. The remaining five GPs do not have these facilities due to space constraints. 

“We had formally requested the Commissioner for two acres of land for solid waste management; however, it was not sanctioned then; later, when it was sanctioned, we did not have funds to construct the facility,” said the panchayat development officer of the Barandur GP.

In Karnataka, the main constraints for the safe management of dry and domestic hazardous waste were the lack of awareness and land availability for SWM infrastructure, according to a scoping paper published by Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment in 2023, based on their interaction with various SBM-G officials from different states.

Let us take a closer look at how the five GPs without DWCCs manage their solid waste:

SWM partnership in urban-rural interface

The Aralikoppa, Barandur, Karehalli, Hiriyur and Veerapura GPs, each with 1,000-1,500 households, lie in the vicinity of the Bhadravathi CMC.

Around 85 per cent of these households hand over their waste to the collection vehicle (Swacchata Vahinis) during door-to-door waste collection. Also, around 75 per cent of households segregate their waste at their source into dry and wet waste before handing it over to the collection vehicle.

Each GP generates around 200 kilogramme of wet /organic waste and 30-40 kg of dry waste daily. Although these GPs are sanctioned to have Swachha Sankeernas under SBM-G funds, these decentralised facilities are not built due to the unavailability of land in these GPs. Hence, these GPs have tied up with Bhadravathi CMC for waste processing to ensure proper waste management after collection.

This partnership budded upon a formal request letter from Barandur and Hiriyur GPs to the Zilla Panchayat, Shivamogga in 2018. Following this, in 2019, the Zilla Panchayat called for a formal discussion, bringing the GPs and Bhadravathi CMC together to take this matter forward. 

It was decided that collaboration on waste disposal should be permitted by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the GPs and the CMC. 

Bhadravathi CMC has a solid waste management and disposal unit built on 20 acres of land in Hiriyur GP. The urban local body purchased this privately owned land for SWM requirement. The unit has a wet waste processing facility (windrow composting), a dry waste sorting area within the same shed and a landfill.

The recyclables in the sorted dry waste are sold to local scrap dealers for resource recovery and the non-recyclables are sent to a cement factory in Bagalkot for co-processing in kilns. Sanitary and other domestic hazardous waste is disposed of in the landfills adjacent to the unit.

In villages, the GP encourages home composting of wet waste and hence collects only dry and domestic hazardous waste except for a few households and markets with no space for composting.

According to the MoU, the CMC would charge the GPs a processing / disposal fee of Rs 100 / tonne of dry waste received. The waste collected from the GPs is delivered to the CMC transfer station, where a secondary vehicle transfers it to the SWM unit along with the waste collected from the urban area.

This is a win-win situation for both parties. The GPs have appropriate end destinations for the waste generated in the villages, while the CMC-operated unit profits from resource recovery from this waste. “The partnership with CMC has been going well so far; we have good support from CMC officials and our residents,” said Secretary Veerapura GP.

In the existing collection system in these GPs, residents are encouraged to compost their wet waste at home and hand over dry and domestic hazardous waste to the collection vehicle. This practice also promotes waste segregation at the source and better resource recovery.

The Hiriyur and Aralikoppa GPs are close to the CMC-operated solid waste management and disposal unit (2-4 km). Hence, the collection vehicle from these respective GPs drops the waste directly at the unit at the end of daily collection or after each trip.

Other GPs (Veerapura, Barandur and Karehalli), which are relatively far (> 10 km) from the unit, transfer the waste into a secondary vehicle (compactor) at the transfer station / point, which then delivers the waste to the unit.

CMC does not charge separately for the secondary transportation of waste. Until now, GPs have not yet started paying CMC for waste processing, even though it is stated in the MoU. However, even if they start paying, given the amount of dry waste generated in these GPs, the tipping fee will be minimal (less than Rs 1,000) when compared with the monthly operation and maintenance cost of Swachha Sankeernas (around Rs 10,000).

The presence of a closed loop of solid waste collection and management system motivates the SGHs to carry out door-to-door collection diligently, preventing waste dumping or littering. 

The urban-rural partnership in Bhadravathi has existed since 2019, helping the villages at the urban-rural interface manage their waste effectively. Around 70 per cent of the waste received at the CMC-operated SWM unit is from the urban area, while the remaining 30 per cent is from the villages in seven GPs (five discussed here and two others not covered under the project).

The lack of land for DWCC construction in these GPs triggered the collaboration between these GPs and CMC for solid waste management. These urban-rural synergies in waste management will work when both parties have benefits.

Such partnership models can also be replicated in cases where there is low financial viability for DWCC operation. This happens when GPs receive very little high-value recyclable waste, and the monthly operation and maintenance costs of DWCC exceed the monthly revenue generated from the sale of recyclables.

Financial constraints also impede the processing / transportation of low-value materials and non-recyclables. Collaborating with urban MRFs for waste processing will solve the waste management problem in these scenarios. Such symbiotic relationships coexist in many cities, towns and villages in India, promising flying colours for SBM 2.0.

Anjali V Raj, Rajendra Rathoad and George Alexander are with Saahas.

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.