Free Custom «Solid Waste Management» Essay Paper

Introduction

First and foremost, it is necessary to accentuate the fact that solid waste management is a public policy of a considerable importance. International experience indicates that the countries, where such policies have been introduced, fulfill the task of waste disposal substantially more effectively, than those countries, where the adoption of such policies is still in the pipeline. These polices have already been successfully implemented in the countries of the developed Western Democracies as well as in the Eastern countries. To illustrate, China and the United States of America together with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are among the pioneers who have successfully launched these campaigns, and who ultimately obtained positive outcomes. In particular, numerous reports of the various leading international organizations have confirmed the fact that with the adoption of these policies, these countries entirely conform to the ecological, economic and legal prescriptions imposed on them by the leading environmental organizations (Healey, 1996). The relevance of this program has been repeatedly affirmed by the UN in its reports and annual statements (Almorza, 2002).  It has been ascertained that the countries, which have adopted these policies, meet the ecological needs of our planet and must be subjected to the simplified procedures of the international tax planning and regulation (Groover, 2000).

 

Type of service

Type of assignment

Title of your paper *

Academic level

Pages

Timeframe

Spacing

Currency

  Order now

Moreover, it has been reported that the tempos of the Indian economic development during the previous 20 years are among the highest in the world. Although the tempos of the economic development are still high, the overwhelming majority of the entire Indian population (approximately 75%) lives below the poverty line.   Together with the low living standards, one of the most topical issues in India, are the growing ecological concerns. Therefore, the distribution of both industrial and natural wastes remains among the hottest problems of the entire Indian community.

The aim of this research paper is to propose to erect a decentralized solid waste management scheme in the major cities of India. Upon the completion of this project, the ecological and economical needs of the Indian population located in those areas will be partially satisfied.

The background of the Policy

Undoubtedly, there is no exaggeration in the statement that there is a crying need for the implementation of this policy. Although officially the caste system has been completely eradicated, several classes of the Indian society still remain completely deprived of civil rights and in some cases even discriminated by the elite classes.  This situation is somehow reflected in the contemporary situation of the wastes disposition and allocation in India (Almorza, 2002). The entire rural communities have been dumped with solid industrial and natural wastes. As a result of the violations of the basic human rights, it is reported that contagious deceases quickly disseminate among poor Indian rural population (Healey, 1996). Besides, the lack of knowledge about the safe treatment of industrial wastes among the population results in the rise of contagious diseases in Indian people.

Although October 2000 was marked by the adoption of the Municipal Solid Wastes Rules, which set forth the guidelines that should be followed while the industrial solid wastes are disposed of. In accordance with these rules, each Indian major city shall possess a system of facilities capable of meeting these needs (Jakab, 2011).  However, even in the light of the adoption of this instrument, several major problems (for instance, hazardous smoke, produced in the process of the wastes combustion, or leeching and subsequent contamination of the agricultural soils and potable waters by the combustion products) are still unresolved. The aim of this research is to provide and to evaluate the solutions of these problems.

The process to follow

The process of incorporating the policy in question contains five integral stages. Each stage is of a particular importance and cannot be omitted by the engineers and by those, who will virtually fulfill the elements of the project.

The first, and perhaps the most important stage, is the agenda setting process.   At this stage of the project the decision of policy implementation is taken, and the advantages and disadvantages of the program are carefully assessed.  A significant number of professionals are usually implicated in this task in order to serve the needs of the community in the most efficient way.  It is planned to fulfill this action in the half-year period starting from now. In other words the deadline for this project stage must be set for March, 2013, providing that the policy scheme is approved by the local councils of the respective Indian cities and the necessary financing is provided by the local governments (Healey, 1996).

Stay Connected

Live Chat Order now

The second stage which is involved in the project fulfillment is the stage of policy formulation. At this stage the policy`s peculiarities are revealed to the general public and to the authorities, who will ultimately authorize the erection of the facilities, prescribed by the project (Lemann, 2008).   In particular, one of the major aims under the provisions of this program is the purification of the main Indian rivers and other water reservoirs from the health detrimental chemical and physical elements (Almorza, 2002). As far as other issues pertinent to the project are concerned, it is necessary to stress the importance of increasing forest and tree coverage and complete eradication of the waste dumps scattered across India (Lemann, 2008)..

The third stage is the policy adoption. At this stage the polished and clearly formulated project is presented for consideration of the federal and local authorities, where the facilities are planned to be erected (Jakab, 2011).  Provided that their approval is obtained and, therefore, the project finance is provided, the teams of lawyers, engineers and other specialists may start the project.

The fourth stage of the project is the policy implementation and the policy monitoring. In other words, at this stage the facilities and the object that have been planned during the previous stages are physically erected and the physical implementation of the project is permanently observed by the special department (Healey, 1996). The erected facilities must entirely conform to the legal requirements of the federal and state laws of the federal Republic of India, as well as to the widely acknowledged international building standards and international ecology and environment standards (Lemann, 2008).

The fifth stage of the entire process is the ultimate evaluation of the implemented project and comparison of the results achieved with the goals that have been set at the first stage of the project (Almorza, 2002). It is a well acknowledged fact that this process is no less important than the first stage, because, providing that the project was successful, the same projects can be implemented in the neighboring areas, in other states of India and in the neighboring states, where such policies have not been launched yet.

The strategy

Considering that the usefulness of the program is proven, specific goals should be designated in order to design a consecutive plan for the project fulfillment (Jakab, 2011). Objectively, the following steps must be followed for effective fulfillment of the ultimate goal:

4.1.First and foremost, the task of primary importance is to diminish the wastes dumped into the landfills and hereby to extent the landfills capacity

4.2.All possible measures shall be undertaken to diminish the negative environmental and ecological impact on the Indian community

4.3.The soil can be effectively fertilized by the natural elements, which are procured from them products of the combustion of natural and industrial wastes

4.4.The environmental awareness within the community must be considerably heightened, in order to enhance the public perception of the initiatives.

4.5.All possible measures must be taken to ensure the maintenance of the project on the local levels (Jakab, 2011)

4.6.If the effective solid waste management program is launched, the costs of transportation and energy should be provided in the upcoming future (Jakab, 2011).

4.7.Successful implementation of the program guarantees the creation of the numerous job places and the partial eradication of the unemployment rates in India.

5. The projected outcome of the policy

The aim of the policy is to ensure that upon the fulfillment of this project, the entire population of the individually chosen state must be permanently accessed to the potable water.  This access must be of permanent character and cases of occasional contaminations of the highly inflectional deceases must be removed permanently (Healey, 1996). The ultimate goal is to decrease the children and adults’ mortality rates which are primarily caused by the centers of infections located in the waste dumps (Everett, 2012) .

Another goal of the projected policy is that the areas, where the major Indian garbage dumps and landfills are located, must be liberated completely. The soil in the putrefied areas may be subsequently used for the agricultural needs, as well as for the building ones, considering the fact that India is one of the countries with highest population density in the world (Almorza, 2002).

The current state of affairs is that the garbage dumps and landfills are either dumped or combusted, thereby contaminating agricultural soils and potable waters.  Unless an effective solid waste management program is launched, the entire Indian rural community will be on the verge of the ecological and environmental disaster.

The Projected Method and the  Existing Ones

Currently, due to the lack of the sufficient financial resources the state officials of the majority of the Indian megalopolises as well as the rural areas prefer conventional and therefore considerably outdated methods of the waste disposal. The method that is proposed in this research is considerably more expensive and labor consuming, but the ultimate results justify these expenditures. In this section of the proposal, a comparison between the existing waste management and the projected one is given and the advantages and disadvantages of the new method are outlined.

The Conventional Method

The main problem of  all public and private initiatives in India is lack of financial support from the government and social institutions. Moreover, ecological and environmental concerns are not regarded as important ones, and regrettably, they are almost always out shadowed by the financial and political needs of the society. Nowadays, the waste is disposed the following way: the individuals and the business corporations’ dump their wastes into the specifically designated areas or containers. Then, these wastes are accumulated on the gigantic landfills and either burnt or earthed. The average square of the landfill is about 21 square kilometers. It has been estimated, the rubbish collected in India constitutes approximately 13% of the all wastes generated worldwide. The negative impact to the natural ambience of India and eventually to the physical and mental health of the inhabitants is tremendous: the soil is contaminated either by the wastes or by the products of the combustion (Bridgman, 2012).

The Projected Method

Although the projected method is highly expensive, the costs in question are completely justified by the projected ultimate outcome of the project. The first issue is that the garbage is classified into several containers. The one must be allocated for plastic wastes, the second for the glass ones, the third for the food leftovers, the one for the paper and the last one for the metal wastes (Bridgman, 2012). The second step is the massive informational campaign among the population of India and the representatives of the business institutions, who must be mandated to dump their wastes in accordance with that classification.  In order to ensure the proper dumping, heavy penalties must be applied on those, who decide to deviate from the waste management instructions. An effective tool does seem to be a termination of business licenses for the violation of the policy.

The third step is the recycling process. The plastic wastes, the metal one are re-melted; the food leftovers are left for the process of the natural putrefaction. Paper remnants are recycled and new stacks of paper are manufactured as a result of this process. Existing landfills must be eradicated by the observance of the following algorithm: the wastes are classified and then re-proceeded (Bridgman, 2012).  Naturally, the process involves a complex transport system and qualified professional who can guarantee the implementation of the policy. Ultimately, these methods will bring the reduction in the soil, water and air pollution together with the rise of the economy, because the need for the raw material will be diminished. As a result, the initially costly policy will help to economize a huge amount of financial resources for the economy of India, due to the fact that a significant percentage of the solid wastes will be converted into the raw materials (Smith, Brownwyn, 2012).

The Stakeholders of the Projected Management Scheme

A great variety of different participants will be involved in the project implementation. This section of the report reveals the character of the most fundamental participants of the process.

The first group which is directly involved to the process is the federal and local authorities of India (Lemann, 2008) . The role of these institutions is the governmental observation and review of the project and conclusion on whether the project provisions fully correspond to Indian local, federal and international environmental and ecological mandatory requirements. And the ultimate goal of this project participant of is the project approval (Jakab, 2011). When an approval is given, the next step is the procurement of financial resources for the project implementation.

The second group is the hired employees who will be involved in the process.  The future employees will be categorized into several groups. The first group will be the managerial group, in other words the professionals who will be responsible for providing effective governance.  The second group will be qualified professionals, in particular engineers and qualified software developers, responsible for providing effective IT support of the project (Almorza, 2002). Engineers are responsible for arranging proper calculations and projections.  The third group is, in their majority, the manual workers, responsible for physical implementation of the project and erection of the facilities provided by the project.

The third group of participants involves the volunteers. People, who will willingly participate in implementation of the project in question, is definitely one of the key elements in the project realization. Their task is to exercise the objectives which are allocated to the group of manual workers, but who, for some reasons, for instance, lack of qualifications or finance, will not be able to cope with their tasks.  Another goal of this group is to convey the message to the general public. The aim of this message is to ensure that the general public in their majority approves the initiatives conducted by the project team (Healey, 1996).  If the public does not approve the initiatives, the volunteers have to do their best in order to convince the public that the project is socially, ecologically and economically beneficial for the entire Indian community.

The fourth group of stakeholders is private corporations involved in the process. The aim of their participation is twofold in its nature (Juhasz, Magesan  et.al, 2004).  First of all, the private corporations implement their social responsibility policies, contributing to the development of the solid waste management policy. Secondly, private institutions provide supplies and raw materials to arrange an effective launch of the project, acting as major project contractors. Moreover, the private companies and their affiliated institutions may perform as investors (Almorza, 2002).  Having invested financial resources to the project, they will ultimately obtain market opportunities to obtain state contracts for the maintenance of the facilities at hand.

Among the major problems which urgently need to be resolved by the launch of this project are the following issues (Colebathc, 2012).

Environmental Degradation

It is a widely acknowledged fact that improper treatments of industrial and natural wastes engender a great variety of dangerous prospective risks of the environmental and health-related character (Healey, 1996).  It is reported that approximately 44% of the entire infectious ailments in India are disseminated because of the improper locations of the garbage dumps and landfills.

Deterioration of the Health of the Population

Present state of industrial and natural landfills and garbage dumps are the primary reasons which cause the number of incurable and seriously detrimental deceases (Srivastra, 2007).  Scientific and medical studies affirmed that the major parts of contagious and oncological diseases are caused by the infective insects which nest in the accumulation of debris (Lemann, 2008).

Key Areas Which Must Be Improved

Overall, the effective solid waste management policy can be divided into subsections, which must be separately improved.

8.1. The transportation system.

One of the garbage removal means is the transportation to appropriate areas by the means of trucks and other transportation facilities (Almorza, 2002). In order to meet these goals, extensive road coverage should be built and appropriate trucks shall be purchased.   This task shall be fulfilled within the 6 months term in order to ensure that the rest of the project sections are implemented successfully, due to the fact that the transportation element is the key one.

8.2. The financing of the program. The program can be financed from the different sources, but currently these programs are financed primarily from the state budget.  It is rational to attract finance from other sources, including private corporations, social institutions and international organizations (Everett, 2012).   The finance shall be obtained within the first month of the project realization; otherwise the project is financially endangered.

8.3. Another problem which requires urgent involvement of the public initiatives under the aegis of the solid management policy is the incorrect public perception of the existing landfills and garbage dumps.  People purposefully dump their domestic wastes into the existing landfills and garbage dumps, hereby, deteriorating the already terrible ecological situation (Colebath, 2012).

Summary

Having considered the key elements of the solid management policy at hand, it seems to be the most desirable environmental initiative for the major cities of India. International experience must be accentuated and extensively used (Healey, 1996). The program provides that the project key stakeholders are the governmental federal and state authorities, local communities, volunteers and hired employees of all levels.

An important role in the project implementation is played by private corporations and their affiliated institutions.

Overall, the current situation in India is favorable for the implementation of the solid waste management policy.