Executive summary:
Urban India produces about 42.0 million tons of municipal solid waste annually i.e. 1.15 lakh metric tons per day(TPD), out of which 83,378 TPD is generated in 423 Class-I cities. Waste generated in 423 Class-I cities works out to 72.5% of the total waste generated each day .
Observations:
• Generation: Sources of municipal solid waste are households, Commercial
Establishments, Corporate houses & Institutions. Waste is generally
disposed from the sources in mixed form.
• Collection: Door to door collection efficiency ranges from 22% - 60%,
Inadequate training or no training is provided to primary collectors and they
have bare minimum safety equipment provided.
• Transportation: Inadequate finance leads to inefficient transport system
which is not custom built to carry segregated waste.
• Remediation: Due to the mixed state of waste, % remediation of
biodegradable waste is very low. Currently, though numerous options exist as to which remediation technology is to be used, the priority is to find storage locations for each class of the segregated waste until the appropriate technology is selected for remediation.
• Recycling: The recovery and recycling of waste is still low, and the smaller
units Which recycle the maximum follow unsafe practices which lead to
release of toxic plastics into the markets.
• Landfill: Most of the waste finds its way into the land fill due to its mixed
form.
Numerous NGOs have been actively working towards spreading awareness about segregated waste disposal from source however, a sustainable, scalable system which can be universally applied is still at large.
The current project relates to a standardised and universally applicable process towards achieving system integration in segregating municipal solid waste at source and resultant collection, treatment and disposal planning because,
“If you don’t measure it, you can’t know it. If you don’t know it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you are at the mercy of chance!”
- Six Sigma Philosophy
PROJECT PURPOSE/JUSTIFICATION
This MSWM project has been created to –
1) Engage general population into community development and thus
providing awareness and training in order to prevent mixed waste disposal
and littering.
2) In-corporate E-Governance into municipal services.
3) Provide training and performance monitoring controls in waste
management services.
4) To support remediation technologies and thus inviting further investments.
5) To enable corporate houses to invest in community development with
profitable returns on investment.
6) Enable a sustainable and profitable service-delivery model in municipal
services and thus achieving paid services through pay as you throw
model.
7) To achieve land resource savings through minimum contribution to
landfills.
Project Basis :
Community Engagement is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
The Product :
The current product is an alpha numeric and colour coded labelling system. The label acts as the source data carrier (hardware) which is integrated to a Geographic information system and has information like source location details and other source details relevant to municipal services. The information is imported to a Computer network (Management Information Systems) through Bar-code, scanning, imaging or Radio Frequency identification.
The Initiation phase:
The urban community is mapped to a Geographic Information System as per the Municipal Zone, circle and ward. In parallel, the below mentioned milestones need to be achieved.
1) A customer helpline for community services is to be set upset up
(a Community 911).
2) Receipt of the feedback/suggestions of the residents and action plan.
3) Manpower allocation and trainings towards daily trash pick-ups.
4) Primary collection vehicle customization towards segregated pickups.
5) Assessment of waste quantity that will be generated as per their
classification and the inventory management program related to it.
6) Financial modelling towards user charges to be levied on the households.
The Implementation phase :
The segregated waste is to be disposed into the respective bins and is labelled prior to pickup by the primary collector or generator ( subject to customization).
The waste is weighed and a visual quality check is done by the primary collector.
The labels are submitted at the secondary transfer point as input data into the management information systems.
The transport vehicles are then routed as per their supply chain network.
PROJECT DELIVERABLE
a) Interactive mechanism between the urban community and municipal solid
waste management agency.
b) The urban community mapped on a Geographic Information system as
per their socio-economic habitat.
b) Standardization of waste management practices.
c) Process controls from waste generation to disposal.
d) Real time data sets.
e) Financial Modelling towards remediation technology.
f) Paid services.
g) Individual polluter tracker.
h) E-Governance in municipal solid waste management
P.S: A detailed presentation is shared via slideshare below.
Project Action Plan
Project Action Plan
1Developing a Project management unit as per the guidelines of World Bank on “capacity building for urban development” dated June 17th 2011.- subject to iteration of the current project.
Developing a Project management unit as per the guidelines of World Bank on “capacity building for urban development” dated June 17th 2011.- subject to iteration of the current project. Located in:,
2Individual presentations of the product and process towards inviting funds
Individual presentations of the product and process towards inviting funds Located in:,
3Content development on the key aspects of Sustainable Development.
Content development on the key aspects of Sustainable Development. Located in:,
4Submission of the Project management unit and gap analysis to World Bank.
Submission of the Project management unit and gap analysis to World Bank. Located in:,
Why should you vote for this project?
Help spread the word:
Who will this help Rise
1) General population.
2) Urban Local Bodies.
a) Municipal Bodies
b) Contractors (collection & transportation of waste).
3) Private partnerships.
a) Companies from different sectors.
b) Infrastructure companies.
c) Recycling (organised / rag pickers).
d) Remediation companies.
4) Land Resource (Landfill).
5) Environment.
6) Public Heath.
7) Economy.
How will this help them Rise?
A) General Population.
1) Daily awareness/training mechanism on waste segregation.
2) Standard procedure/guidelines.
3) A mechanism for service delivery in waste management.
B) Urban Local Bodies.
1) Provides a revenue source.
2) Singular process for better operation and maintenance.
3) Continuous on the job training of personnel.
4) Transparent performance monitoring.
5) Ease of management.
6) Tangible returns paving way to appreciation for the facilities set up by the Urban Local Body for the use and safety of the community.
7) Resource planning.
C) Private partnerships (Public Private Partnerships).
1) Source of revenue stream (user fee applicability/Pay as you throw).
2) Sufficient real time data for planning daily operations and research.
3) Effective systems and procedures.
4) Daily data which facilitates funding for further research and development in
Remediation technologies
5) Transparency for channeling funds towards the betterment of Municipal Solid Waste management to get Tangible returns.
D) Land Resource (Landfill).
1) Achieves the ultimate goal of zero contribution to landfills.
E) Environment.
1) Avoids and accounts further Green House Gas emissions from landfill.
2) Avoids further Land pollution via leach-ate at landfill site.
3) Avoid further ground water contamination via leach-ate at landfill site.
F) Public Health
1) Landfill sites are the largest breeding ground for mosquitoes. Minimal contribution to landfills helps us control the menace.
2) Overflowing public dustbins are controlled through resource planning.
G) Economy :
1) The waste management industry is at a very nascent stage and is expected to grow relatively much faster than other sectors as waste management is of high priority today. A standard system not only helps in inviting more investments it also creates more employment opportunities.
2) Efforts are being made to recognize the contribution of rag pickers in minimizing green house gas emissions. One of the objectives of this system is to quantify their efforts and help organize their sector.
Revised project action plan
Update #7
10 Jan 2013
In the globalized world today the best of design is one which can be implemented with minor customization through out the world and thus we will attempt to bring the project to the notice of not only the World Bank but also to organizations like the United Nation.
Engaging enterprise and organizations is the key focus.
Detailed Project Report
Update #6
23 May 2012
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Municipal solid waste management is an integral part of Urban Development. Ideally it is a service to be provided by the Urban Local Body together with water supply, sanitation, urban transportation, environment, and affordable housing. However International benchmarks show Indian Urban Local Bodies to be lagging on service delivery. The areas that require urgent focus is the development of the capacity of Urban Local Bodies to function successfully in a decentralized environment.
As a response to lack of access to finance and restriction on recruiting new personnel, etc. many Urban Local Bodies have outsourced various tasks to other agencies that aim to increase access to these services, a number of PPP (PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP) options have emerged. There are many examples of Public Private Partnerships in solid waste management.
The primary governmental body supporting, funding and aiding PPP is JNNURM.
Moreover, in order to make investment in basic services by citizens themselves, a reliable and steady multi-actor arrangement is needed. Citizens are increasingly expected to make payments for delivery of services. Public agencies also utilize civil society organizations and private sector to address issues of transparency and accountability.
Community Engagement:
Getting people to interact with others and engagement doesn’t happen automatically. It takes time and work, and much of the right formula is deduced through trial and error. The need of the hour is to explore ways of increasing community engagement that works toward better support, feedback, transparency and redressal between the community and the agency involved with municipal solid waste management.
Good communication in community engagement is critical to a greater understanding of the needs and views of the local community. With the progress in information technology, telecom and internet are the two main mediums of communication with very low entry costs. When these mediums are further integrated with a Geographical Information system, huge data sets (urban Population) can be effectively handled.
Defining a Community:
Before going any further, it is important to begin thinking of community in the broadest possible terms. We define community as all those who have an immediate or future stake in municipal solid waste management practices. Community can be identified as:
External community - By which we mean Corporate houses, Policy makers, NGOs, Social and civic organization leaders – individuals who have an interest yet are not technically involved in or are directly served by waste management practices.
Once the community has been defined, it becomes crucial to engage them for practices to take place. However, many members of our internal communities do not understand the rapid social changes and concurrent challenges of today. Without an understanding of the sustainable development, it is difficult – if not impossible – to consider why change is necessary at all. Recognition of “why change” is a fundamental requirement of any improvement effort and critical first phase of community engagement.
Once this process is initiated and the urban population is accessible on a common platform then an understanding and urgency of standardized municipal practices needs to be established. However, an understanding’ and ‘urgency’ are insufficient by themselves; ‘action’ is required for any real change to occur. This involves creating consensus on a vision and priorities with an awareness of everyone’s role in the process. Envisioning a system of internal and external community members for a multitude of reasons: to harness the community’s expertise so that the vision is viable, to ensure that it reflects the community’s wants and needs, to develop the skills needed for successful implementation, and to build support for implementation and sustainable efforts. The objective of the consensus is to implement a “Pay As You Throw” model, which can be achieved through our product.
Product:
The Product is an alpha numeric color coded label which acts as the hardware towards standardization of municipal solid waste management. The data from which can be imported to the Management Information system through radio frequency identification/ bar-code/ scanning/imaging device.
Sector Growth
India being the 7th largest country in terms of area and 2nd largest in terms of population constitutes immense business opportunities for domestic and international solid waste management players. The country has seen some dramatic economical and social developments in the last decade. Over the last ten years, the GDP has been growing strongly and per head GDP increased from US$ 481 (INR 21500.7) in 2001 to US$ 1340 (INR 59898) in 2010. The rising affluence was the result of fast urbanization, which is resulting in higher solid waste generation demanding immediate attention.
According to the report, “India Solid Waste Management Analysis”, fast urbanization, industrial boom, government’s focus, and private sector involvement has driven solid waste management market to witness remarkable expansion both in volume and value terms. The urbanization rate which was once trailing at 28.7% in 2005 is anticipated to reach around 34.5% by 2015 that will provide requisites for solid waste management market to acquire 7% CAGR growth during 2011-2015. Taking into consideration, India’s enormous market opportunities, the growth will be attractive enough to lure domestic as well as foreign companies for investment and consulting purposes.
Furthermore, the average output of solid waste generated daily in the top 23 cities of India is between 10,000 to 12,000 tons. A channel ensuring segregation enables utilisation of the organic waste for Waste to Power.
23 % of the Municipal Solid waste generated is Plastic and 12 to 15 % is Paper – the recycling potential of 4500 tons on a daily basis.
The presence of many International Banks like ANZ has boosted the investment potential of the MSW Market in India which is projected to reach 20 Billion Dollars by 2014.
The Political Environment for MSW in India is extremely favourable with various funding schemes towards Segregation, Community Participation and Urban Welfare. The driving force behind this is the JNNURM reforms.
As mentioned afore, paid services via solid waste management will be developed into user-fee applicability towards other areas of urban development, the basis being service delivery. This segment is the novel target sector which is unexplored till now.
Need Gap
Municipal solid waste management in India has gaps of varied magnitude and at different levels, a summary of which is given below:
A) General Population: Urban Community is a complex mix of diverse socio –economic groups and to engage these groups needs a custom/tailor made approach. Thus the need of the hour is statistical characteristics of the urban population, which will help in attaining valuable inputs on the basis of engagement.
B) Service-Delivery: There is a lack of basic service delivery benchmark in municipal services. To implement taxation and subsidy in municipal services, a minimum level of service is a must; only then, will the urban dweller agree to pay as they throw.
C) Lack of a legal mandate: In the absence of a legal mandate on source segregation, community engagement is the only way to attain standardization of waste management practices.
D) Strategic partnership among the private partners in Public Private Partnerships.
Even though PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP is at a nascent stage in India the need of
the hour is to expand the base and involve the other corporate houses in the urban
area through partnership arrangements. Sustainable Development can be achieved
only by creating more partners.
E) E-Governance: E-Governance is quintessential requirement in waste management
or as a matter of fact in any service related to Urban Development. Currently
technology like GIS and Social Media landscape are underutilized in waste
management.
E) Transparency and accountability: Lack of transparency hinders investments into any initiative thus a redressal and feedback mechanism is essential towards inviting investments into waste management.
F) Trainings and process controls in waste management: There is an absolute lack of training provision in primary and secondary collection which is essential; community engagement will help in assessing the Training Need Analysis.
Development has to happen at every level and stage of waste management.
Unique Selling Proposition
Every new product or process evolves based on the gaps in the existing product or process thus the unique feature of this product and process is summarized below.
1) Strategic alliance with customer, client & audience: The focus of the current product and process is identifying the customer, client & audience among the urban dwellers through strategic partnerships, redressal and feedback which is an innovative approach.
2) Transparent mechanism enabling paid services: Transparency and accountability is now becoming essential with the rapid growth in internet users thus open source community networking is essential towards attaining any goals related to urban development.
3) Doing things differently and not different things: RFID enabled waste management is the latest technology being used in developed countries. To be able to implement the same in India the need of the hour is to be innovative in engaging the community towards standardized waste management practices.
4) Multiple revenue streams: Our research has shown that the priority is investments into remediation technology which is possible through paid services and investments by institutions. Strategic alliances are the first step towards achieving it.
Competition Analysis
Now that we have established that this product and process are an initiative towards achieving a better service delivery towards Urban Development, it can therefore be concluded that other such efforts are not competition but partners. Urban Development is hence achievable only through partnership arrangements.
Product/Service Profile and functionality:
The current product is an alpha numeric colour coded labelling system which is to be tagged to the daily waste packaging at primary collection.
The label is the source data carrier, from which the data is imported to a computer network through Radio Frequency identification/ bar-code or any other scanning/imaging devices.
This labelling system contains demographic data and acts as:
1) Source segregation and performance monitor.
2) Process control in waste collection
3) Individual polluter tracker.
4) Transparent billing mechanism through PAYT.
Segmenting, Targeting and positioning strategy:
The segmenting of this product and process is planned in a unique way. The main market segment identified is ‘service-delivery’ in municipal amenities and the main target audience is the urban dweller- as more emphasis is now on the citizen paying reasonable user charges towards better services, the focus is now on creating a benchmark in municipal services while keeping the general population engaged in the entire process and taking their views and feedback into account. The strategy is to use the social media landscape to evolve community networking thus, having a communication medium with a very low cost of operation supported by a helpline phone number.
Revenue Model:
Sustainable urban development is possible only through levying user charges however; to achieve that it is imperative to first engage the community.
Furthermore the key to driving institutional investments into urban development is to first develop a return of investment mechanism and therefore the prime focus is on user fee applicability.
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats):
Strength:
1) Community Engagement
2) Strategic Alliances
3) Dynamic demographic statistics of the urban population
4) Feedback and redressal mechanism
5) Custom built approach.
Weakness:
The current product and process has been devised keeping in mind the gaps in the current
mechanisms. Technically, the product and process have been developed to overcome any form of weakness. However, we have developed this proposal at an individual capacity and as individuals to gain the finances towards sustenance, research and development is the challenge. Also the lack of corporate support at this point of time increases the time it takes to engage the waste management agency. We are working towards gathering support from corporate India to overcome this weakness.
Opportunity:
1) Low service-delivery bench mark in municipal services
2) Unexplored potential of the social networking landscape
3) Public Private Partnership in waste management.
Threats:
1) The current investments made by the private companies in waste management might act as a deterrent in their interest levels in adopting this proposal.
Overall Marketing Strategy
The basis of the current product and process is community engagement wherein we plan to first arrive at a consensus with the community towards ways and means of achieving standardized waste management. What this essentially does is it gives us the function that constitutes "marketing". Marketing entails several functions that include:
• Developing the products or services that customers want- Even prior to standardized waste management practices are put into place there are huge gaps in other basic municipal services. Community engagement is the proposed methodology towards understanding what is it that is required to be done to achieve the attention of the general population towards standardized waste management practices.
• Pricing the products or services correctly – User fee applicability can be achieved only once a consensus is reached through community engagement due to the diverse socio economic divide in urban India.
Working Capital Requirements
The working capital requirement for the current project does not include physical liabilities or assets; it is the capital required towards:
• Research and development
• Fixed expenses
• Hardware
• Costs towards engagement programme involving the corporate community.
Once partnership arrangement towards developing the prototype is finalised, the team size is subject to change and a reasonable consulting fee will be levied.
Financial Projections for 3-5 years
The objective of current project is to achieve a better service delivery benchmark in waste management and other relevant municipal services together with user fee applicability which is essential for sustainable development. Therefore, the scalability parameter is achieving Public Private Partnership in Urban Development and not just Waste Management. Thus, in the next 3 to 5 years the aim is to extend the implementation of the product and process in metropolitan cities.
References
1) World Bank report on “capacity building for urban development” dated June 17th 2011.
2) India Solid waste management analysis.
3) Urban Issues reforms and way forward in India by Chetan Vaidya.
Information Technology and Community Engagement
Update #5
28 Feb 2012
“The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting.”
~ Dave Barry
Urban Community is a complex mix of diverse socio –economic groups and engaging these groups needs a custom/tailor made approach. The first step to engagement is to identify these groups. Once identified a medium of communication needs to be built where the general population can express, share and innovate upon the entire waste management process. General population already has a healthy mix of people who are aware and active towards environmental awareness namely: Corporate working population and the student community. These groups should be used as drivers towards the engagement program.
With the rapid growth in information technology exchanging ideas and forming a communication medium has become more and more accessible.
Stepwise procedure toward community engagement program:
Step 1
• It involves mapping the entire city in the order of the Municipal house number, ward, municipal circle and municipal zone on a geographical information system.
This mapping procedure should start with corporate working population and student population and then has to spread the tentacles to the lesser active part of the urban population namely elderly and homemakers.
• Parallel to this, vital information is gathered on the settlements of urban poor, as this section of the urban population needs special focus and the key to achieving this is partnership arrangements between waste management agency and NGOs.
This G.I.S is then integrated with a social networking platform. The idea of integration is to evolve community networking through social networking.
This will enable:
1) Community view point on waste management.
2) Easier awareness medium.
3) Level and reasons of resistance towards user fee applicability.
4) Areas of municipal services where the general population has grievance.
5) Innovation, the community might innovate on further usefulness of the segregated waste types.
Step 2
• It involves setting up a community helpline no (a community 911) towards reaching out to those parts of the general population who aren’t computer literate. The ultimate objective of this is to hand -hold this part of the general population to becoming a part of the community online.
Furthermore,
The mapping of the entire city on a geographical Information system and further integration into community networking will provide valuable data on gaps in municipal services in:
1) Water Supply.
2) Sanitation.
3) Urban transport.
4) Urban Infrastructure
5) Urban Space management.
Thus, a dashboard on urban development can be created and the data can be shared with the local government.
The power of engagement
Update #4
25 Feb 2012
Our project has been built around the strength of community engagement.
As we started the voting phase we were the last project to be approved. we were clueless as to how to spread the idea, how to share our vision and most importantly how to gain popularity through votes.
We were in total turmoil totally clueless ......then we decided to start the implementation of the project right away................ through community engagement!
We started touring colleges namely JNTUH, GRIET, DRK, etc and started involving students with the voting process through interaction and engagement.
This phenomenon of radical push to our votes in couple of days is the power of the student community and we are proud to be associated with it.
Our belief has been further strenthened that student community is the driver of community engagement towards any goal related to a habitat.
Last but not the least .......Thank you Salman and NIT (Warangal).
Community Engagement
Update #3
25 Feb 2012
Introduction
Getting people to interact with others and engagement doesn’t happen automatically. It takes time and work, and much of the right formula is deduced through trial and error. The need of the hour is to explore ways of increasing community engagement that works toward better support, feedback, transparency and redressal between the community and the agency involved with municipal solid waste management.
Community Defined:
Before going any further, it is important to begin thinking of community in the broadest possible terms. We define community as all those who have an immediate or future stake in municipal solid waste management practices. Internal community- Households, Commercial establishments, primary collectors, transporters, waste management agency, Etc.
External community - by which we mean Corporate houses, community members, policy makers, NGOs, Social and civic organization leaders – individuals who have an interest yet are not technically involved in or are directly served by waste management practices.
Understanding and Urgency on the Need for “Standardized municipal Waste management practices”:
Many members of our internal communities do not understand the rapid social changes and concurrent challenges of today. Without an understanding of the sustainable development it is difficult – if not impossible – to consider why change is necessary at all. Recognition of “why change” is a fundamental requirement of any improvement effort and critical first phase of community engagement.
Commitment to Sustained and Systemic Improvement:
But ‘understanding’ and ‘urgency’ are insufficient by themselves; ‘action’ is required for any real change to occur. Once urgency is established, community engagement involves creating consensus on a vision and priorities with an awareness of everyone’s role in the process. Envisioning a system of internal and external community members for a multitude of reasons: to harness the community’s expertise so that the vision is viable, to ensure that it reflects the community’s wants and needs, to develop the skills needed for successful implementation, and to build support for implementation and sustainable efforts.
Communication and Community Engagement:
Good communication in community engagement is critical to greater understanding of the needs and views of the local community. With the progress in information technology, telecom and internet are the two main mediums of communication.
When these mediums are further integrated with Geographical Information system huge data set (urban Population) can be easily handled.
Yathish Kolli
1 year ago
15
dats indeed a real great support from JNTUH b.tech guys :)
Yathish Kolli
1 year ago
14
Reveda u too come with us u will know how we are getting the support....Mahindra will obviously watching the people and projects like us :)
Reveda Prisha Bhatt
1 year ago
13
U r not following rules.....how can u double ur votes in a day when u didnt have enough during previous 20 days...I hope Mahindra guys are watching
pankaj
1 year ago
12
my vote is for you...great...
pankaj
1 year ago
11
its the need of the hour ...whenever i see people throwing their waste and garbage outside even when the BIN is their..i feel disgusting....good work...
Project Champion
P. Ravi Chandra Chemical engineer currently pursuing Masters in Environmental Management.
An amateur researcher currently developing a project proposal on Sustainable Development.
Yathish Kolli
1 year ago
dats indeed a real great support from JNTUH b.tech guys :)
Yathish Kolli
1 year ago
Reveda u too come with us u will know how we are getting the support....Mahindra will obviously watching the people and projects like us :)
Reveda Prisha Bhatt
1 year ago
U r not following rules.....how can u double ur votes in a day when u didnt have enough during previous 20 days...I hope Mahindra guys are watching
pankaj
1 year ago
my vote is for you...great...
pankaj
1 year ago
its the need of the hour ...whenever i see people throwing their waste and garbage outside even when the BIN is their..i feel disgusting....good work...