India’s construction boom generates huge amounts of waste, which in 2013 was pegged at 50 million tons. New draft rules have now been introduced to tackle this growing menace
By Papia Samajdar
In April this year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Climate Change introduced a set of draft rules—Solid Waste Management Rules 2015—for public comments. One of the significant provisions of these draft rules is a comprehensive and separate mention of construction and demolition (C&D) of waste and its reduction, reuse and recycling. C&D waste has been one of the most neglected categories of waste in India—both in terms of official laws or policies as well as efforts towards recycling or reusing it. And, it is a category that is a cause for concern. One look at the statistics explains why.
India is on the brink of a construction boom, and its real estate sector has been growing at 10 percent per annum over the last decade, as against the world average of 5.5 percent. Approximately 70 percent of the building stock in India is yet to come up, and the built-up area is expected to swell almost five times by 2030, from the base year of 2005.
This will involve generation of huge quantities of C&D waste. While no single authority has been tracking its generation, unofficial estimates in 2013 by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says India generated 530 million tons. The environmental impact of this could swamp and choke our urban centers unless we wake up.
Before we go any further, let’s understand what constitutes C&D waste. This consists of debris generated during the construction, renovation, and demolition of buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. It often contains bulky, heavy materials, such as concrete, wood, metals, glass and salvaged building components. Estimates by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and municipal bodies of generation of C&D waste have a large variance. The Manual on Solid Waste Management, 2000, issued by the Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organization (CPHEEO), says 300 million people living in urban India produce 38 million tons (MT) of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year; the percentage of total C&D waste generated is 10-12 percent of the total MSW generated.
CSE has calculated its estimations taking into account construction of 5.76 billion square meter (sqm) of floor space from 2005-2013. If the Technology Information Fore-casting and Assessment Council’s (TIFAC’s) thumb rule is applied—which states new construction generates 60-50 kg of C&D waste per sqm—then in 2013, India generated 50 million tons. As anyone can see, the difference in the two figures is very stark, with CSE’s estimate almost 44 times the amount quoted by the MoUD.
According to the working sub-group on C&D waste set up by the Delhi government, under the chairmanship of M Shankarnara-yanan of CPHEEO in 2006, one-third of municipal waste generated in Delhi consists of C&D waste. He says that 2,500 tons per day (TPD) of C&D waste is generated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) area alone—with the total MSW waste generated being pegged at 6,000 TPD.
According to a 2010 note by MCD, as per the Census of India, there are about 2.45 million properties in Delhi, of which roughly 0.9 million are assessed ones. Even by a conservative estimate, using TIFAC averages, Delhi should be producing 4,600 tons of C&D waste. However, the MCD’s records point to about 1,000-1,200 tons only.
Disposing C&D waste remains a problem. While there are some identified areas where this waste is dumped, large-scale illegal dumping happens in landfills, empty plots, catchment areas, low-lying or marshy places. The waste also finds its way to river beds, with serious consequences.
There are other environmental concerns about C&D waste and its disposal. India has no more land now for creating new landfills. Moreover, the production processes of some building material—such as Portland Cem-ent—can lead to greenhouse gas emissions. The mining of minerals is not a sustainable business and will not be able to support the construction boom.
So what is the solution? Reuse and recycle C&D waste and turn it into an asset. But that is easier said than done. C&D waste finds a brief mention in the Municipal Solid Waste Rules notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2000. The rules lay the responsibility for collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal waste on municipal authorities, and give the Department of Urban Development of the concerned state and/or union territory the responsibility of enforcement.
Schedule 2(1)(vi) mentions that C&D waste should be collected and disposed of separately from the rest of the municipal waste and follow proper norms—these norms are to be decided by each state. But due to fogginess over accountability—the responsibility for enforcement lies with a different ministry or department and there is weak implementation of rules. The MoEF, which drafts the rules, is dependent on another ministry for their implementation at the state level. Finally, who is accountable?
There have been a few serious efforts towards recycling this waste. One of the recommendations of the sub-committee instituted in Delhi focused on setting up a C&D waste processing and recycling plant to recycle 500TPD of waste. In 2010, IL&FS Waste Management & Urban Services Limited (now IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services Limited) was granted permission to set up India’s only C&D waste processing plant under the Air & Water Acts by the Delhi Pollution Control Board. Land was given in Burari by the MCD.
The plant is operational. It has brick and bat processing units, a concrete block processing unit, an RMC (Ready Mix Concrete) plant, a tile-making plant and a pavement block-making plant. The plant says it is processing 1,200 TPD currently. It has helped reduce the load on landfills, uses treated effluents supplied by Delhi Jal Board and has reportedly saved the Yamuna from being clogged by 15.4 lakh tons of debris.
A committee set up to look into BIS regulations is likely to include C&D aggregates in its policy soon. Once the aggregate is allowed, the end-products will be used by government departments and larger builders.
The Delhi-based Central Roads Research Institute (CRRI) has tried using C&D waste for road construction. Extending this laboratory work, test road construction has been undertaken in Delhi. CRRI will now develop guidelines for C&D waste reuse in roads.
Meanwhile, the draft rules have stressed on reduction, reuse and recycling of C&D waste. Chapter 1 of the rules clearly mentions rules for all solid waste, barring C&D waste: this has been done to give this category its due importance. This is a welcome move. Chapter 2 is dedicated to C&D waste, where the waste generator must give an undertaking for collection, segregation and disposal. Large generators are required for this and appropriate approvals for solid waste disposal are needed before construction can be started.
Urban bodies have been asked to provide a detailed plan for proper management of the waste generated. These bodies also have the liberty to provide incentives to a generator who provides a plan for reuse or recycling. Urban bodies are also mandated to maintain a yearly database of the construction waste generated within their jurisdiction. There is a provision for expert committees to provide inputs on recycling the waste.
Apart from these provisions, which should be able to create space for the market to be interested in recycling and reusing this waste, the rules now include provisions for public awareness through the ministry’s websites, workshops and other dissemination programs.
The demand for pushing policy to create market mechanisms, where demand would be generated for the use of recycled waste products has been accommodated in the draft rules. Inclusion of incentives for recycling and use of recycled material may enable the rules to ease the pressure on naturally sourced resources such as sand. Even with its unabated illegal mining, the demand is unsustainable.
The implementation of the rules, when notified, however would remain a challenge, especially in the case of older construction. The rules do not mention anything about repair work, and that would remain a challenge too.
The good thing is that the rules are quite progressive. They need to be implemented strictly by the urban bodies and monitored vigorously by the CPCB.
— The writer is a senior communications officer with the Centre for Policy Research. She has also worked with the Centre for Science and Environment.