Sourav Kumar Biswas Dima Rachid Maria Jose Vargas
smart models for waste management
Recycling unit in Dharavi
Image by: Brent Lewin | http://brentlewin.blogspot.com/2012/12/dharavi.html
Landfill in Deonar
Image source: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/boys-play-as-cows-graze-through-garbage-at-the-deonar-news-photo/466556670
Ragpicker in Govandi
Image Caption (Source) Source http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/rag-picker-carries-a-bag-of-collected-plasticbottles-in-news-photo/466559048
ABSTRACT
INFORMALITY & THE CITY
Mapping waste flows in Mumbai reveals the prevalance and importance of the informal economy in cities of developing countries. Solid Waste Management (SWM) system manages to recycle its waste due to the network of ragpickers and an informal recycling center in Dharavi. The informal network intersects and follows the formal waste infrastructure, erasing the formal-informal dichotomy through which these economies are typically perceived. By incorporating the informal into city waste collection and recycling schemes, Mumbai may establish a more responsive, resilient, and efficient SWM system. We propose the use of technological platforms, service-based models, and decentralized infrastructures to enable the transition from a source-landfill model to a smart system that empowers ragpickers to become recycling entrepreneurs. The success of this waste-collector centric model requires the involvement and co-operation of the waste pickers, city governments and the civil society. We argue this neighborhood-based model will significantly improve the working and living conditions of waste-pickers within their settlements. A similar service-oriented model may deliver sanitation services among other amenities, independent of the government’s willingness to provide formal infrastructure. While the informal economy plays a significant role in cities of the global south, defining this economy is subject to a number of different site-specific dynamics and needs to take a multi-scalar approach acting upon general yet flexible frameworks. Social scientists conducting on field research approximate informal economies as more than 80% of the overall economy in Mumbai. Yet, the size of the informal economy can only be estimated in indirect ways - whether in economic or spatial terms. Macroeconomic approaches and definitions have to adapt to valuate the contribution of the informal economy. Dharavi, one of oldest and largest informal settlements, is home a variety of industries that together have an estimated annual output of USD600 million to more than USD 1 billion (Yardley, 2011).
(Vanek & Chen et al., 2014)
Similarly, the informal economy is marginalized in urban and municipal planning schemes as it is essentially unrecognized in the spatial mapping and understanding of the urban. Informal economy expands across the city occupying space yet occupying no space. Informal economies produce space that is shaped and transformed by their livelihoods rather than autonomously prescribed by laws. It is a contested space, appropriated in a constant fight for an equal right to the city. Neo-Marxists would associate informal workers in Mumbai escaping poverty and migrating in search of work opportunities as a manifestation of governmental failure and power struggles. Informality in India is a process that has grown out of prolonged resilience and adaptation in a continuous struggle for appropriating interstitial spaces within the gaps of formal planning. Yet, formal and informal systems are two different processes of operation, production and distribution that are seemingly situated at two binary poles but are in fact systemically integrated. Informality cannot be addressed by universal solution-seeking regulatory format. Rather, a set of strategies is needed that address its socio-economic
(Castells, 1989: 20)
(Yardley, 2011)
specificity, and build on its decentralization, flexibility and efficiency. Technologies and business models have taken a leap in creativity and the positioning of the informal within these platforms is promnising. On one hand it helps to map, represent and analyze the informal as a process, and on the other hand also allows for potential to address, from within, the underlying structure that has given rise to this phenomenon. This paper is twofold. We argue that Mumbai has room for improving its Solid Waste Management system (SWM) by investing in its current informal plastic waste collection and recycling scheme. We then propose an integration of informal waste pickers in the SWM system of the city using a technological platform to match supply and demand of the service. This transition should incorporate a systemic view of the waste management system and requires interventions in the source, collection, management and recycling process, and involves not only informal waste pickers, but also city governments and the civil society. We argue that this process, while enhancing the SWM in Mumbai, also has the potential to upgrade the living conditions and the social structure of the now empowered informal settlers within their places of habitation. FORMAL WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In its current scheme, the formal waste management system in Mumbai is a singular line process in which garbage is picked up from municipal bins in medium trucks, transferred at transition sites into medium trucks, and then dumped in three of the six landfills of the city. This process employs 30,000 formal workers and 983 trucks. Without any sorting or recycling, 10,000 mt of waste produced every day travels 20-28km straight to the landfills. Refuse and debris are leveled at these sites using bulldozers and landfill compactors. The landfilling carried out here is open dump tipping. At present there are 3 landfill sites in Mumbai: Deonar, Mulund and Kanjurmarg (Refer to images to the right)
MCGM, 2012
The informal SWM system outgrew the formal one in terms of management, MCGM, 2012 sorting and recycling waste. 250.000 waste pickers comprise the informal workforce in charge of collecting waste material for recycling. They manage mainly paper, plastic and glass. The plastic recycling sector is one of the most important ones of the city. 650 MT of plastic waste are produced daily in Mumbai and 85% of it is recycled in the Dharavi district. Collection includes door-to-door collectors, street garbage pickers and dumpsite “rag� pickers. Collected garbage is weighed and bought by the middlemen or the roaming waste dealers (parameter being weight and opacity of the plastic. Recyclable plastics end up in the recycling units which are currently centralized in Dharavi. Once in the facility, the plastic undergoes hand sorting, machine shredding, washing, roof drying and pellet formation by the plastic recyclers. The final product (colored pellets) is sold by the owner of each recycling facility mainly to plastic businesses, mainly in China. (Refer to MAP, DIAGRAMS, and SECTIONS on the following pages)
DHARAVI _13TH Compound_ Spatial Taxonomy
TO SION
mangrove
18m road 18m
wide
Rd.
17M WIDE RD.
public toilet residential hut commercial industrial
religious
waterway
Amount of Waste Disposed at Dumping Sites Location
Area
Quantity of MSW (tons per day)
Deonar Deonar Deonar
111 ha 111 ha 111 ha
6,826 6,826 6,826
G+1
WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TODAY
Operations in waste management: Formal & Informal
ay /d
c sti
pla
ns
tio
za
ni rs to rga s ec d o l n l o co se 5t or ba 67 or-do unity do mm e co ag
tr 98 ans 3 itio tru n ck sit s e
de
g ra
s er ck
re 12
pi
Moland
m
do
a
arb
cg
ti es
0.96 m tons
21 ha
Kanjur
10,000 tons waste /day
95% of plastics plastic waste picker
-- m tons
-- ha
street garbag
m
20-28 km
m
er ci
al
ga
rb
440 tons plastic/day
Deonar
e
7.88 m tons
co
is
ar
ab
h /k ler
110 ha
--- km
ag
e
5% of plastics plastic waste picker street rag picker waste collector hired domestic servants
30.000
waste collectors
6 workers + operator
mini truck
983 trucks
>100,000 ragpicker
rick-shaw
ess
r
e own
0. 60
to ns p
las
tic
/d ay
123,580 Rp/month
busin
it
n r/u
le yc ec
a
in
Ch
780 single room factory/unit 8500 recyclers
tenements 150sq ft. area 60,158 structures 45,563 residential
cart bike
sac
sorting
reused box
shredding
shredder
washing
reused basket
roof drying
pellet machine
melting into coil
sac
pellet forming
DHARAVI PLASTIC WASTE/RECYCLING _ INFRASTRUCTURE Plastic Recycling Infrastructure in Dharavi taxonomy of tools
taxonomy of mobile infrastru
plastic baskets for draining plastic after washing
bicycle: collected pla
collected boxes used for storage
carts_ pulled manual
final product packed in burlap bags
auto-rickshaw for nar
plastic shredding machine
small trucks_ alleys a
1/1500 latrine total 667
ground floor_ workspace_
roofs for storage and sun drying washed shredded plastic
top floor storage space living space sorted plastics piled inalleys
limited communal taps
1
7
8
3
6
ucture
parameters of plastic selection
astics stacked or hung in bags
plastic type type_ thickness / weight/ opacity
lly or attched to bikes/rickshaws
plastic color
rrow alleys
and main roads
plastic shredding machine_ in the living/working space
e_
roofs used to stock collected/sorted plastics
construction material: scrap material/ some brick and conrete mobile infrastructure typology/space req.
4
5
2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
One of the main restrictions for policy analysis of informal sectors is the lack of reliable data. Using WIEGO estimates and secondary sources we were able to understand the process, quantify workforce and money flows. Spatially, mapping of the informal waste picking system has extensively covered localized areas of dumping i.e. landfills and recycling i.e. Dharavi. Yet, the middle grounds in the process remain vague and unaddressed. In this research we aimed at setting spatial and temporal parameters between the source and end. Our speculation was based on existing infrastructural systems of connection that are most likely used by the waste pickers linking the landfills
Mapping the existing system
(source of picking) to Dharavi (the ultimate destination). Moving forward with spatial mapping, we overlaid the existing informal settlements with respect to sites of transition and sites of dumping, particularly where settlements have grown onto the periphery of the landfills. This helped us speculate on the track of the trash and how rag-pickers most likely moved around the city (home-transition site-landfill-site -recycling site). While this is speculative, it places a preliminary structure for further on-ground investigation.
Waste-sorters in Dharavi
Source: UDRI | https://favelaissues.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/dharavi1.jpg
CASE STUDIES
Cairo
Bogota
Bengaluru
Pune
Informal waste collection systems have been incorporated into formal waste systems in a number of countries of the global south, increasing the efficiency of the system, alleviating the living conditions of the waste-pickers and offering them much more agency and public consideration. In Cairo for example, Zabaleen have a long history of contribution to the cleanliness of the city, but also a history of a livelihood threatened with continuous struggle with authorities. Zabaleen recycle up to 80% of the collected waste compared to 20-25% that is reached by private garbage collecting companies. Zabaleen, now a stronger union, was able to team up with the Ministry of Environment and created 44 local waste disposal companies taking over the SWM system in the south of the city. A public awareness campaign launched by the city supported the Zabaleen by enforcing waste sorting at source. Similarly in Pune, the waste-picker union is one of the oldest and strongest unions. Kagad Kach Patra Kaghtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) is a waste pickers union started in 1993. It constituted the first wholly owned cooperative of self-employed waste pickers and was the building block of Swach (Solid Waste Collection and Handling). In Bogota, the Constitutional Court recognized the legitimacy of the waste pickers offering contracts and regular payment system.
(GuĂŠnard, 2013, November 13) (Carr, 2014, July 1) (Chakrabarty, 2014, April 14) (Chakrabarty, 2014, April 15)
Likewise in Bangalore, ragpickers are registered, have identity cards, contracts, upgraded mobility as well as a smart phone that better connects the rag picker, now a manager, to the closest source of waste. The new Municipal Solid Waste Rules empower the city corporation’s joint commissioner for health and solid waste management to impose fines on those who don’t segregate their waste, and he intends to exercise that power. The corporation could also instruct municipal workers not to accept mixed waste on their garbage collection rounds giving the recyclers and waste pickers more agency.
Decentralized waste management
SMART WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES Smart operations in waste management
`
WASTE PICKING / SEGREGATION AT LOCAL SOURCE
ay /d
c sti
pla
ns
tio
za
ni rs to rga s ec d o l n l o co se 5t or ba 67 or-do unity do mm e co ag
tr 98 ans 3 itio tru n ck sit s e
distributed recycling units per ward reduces presssure on landfills & municipal waste collection
arb
cg
ti es
Moland
m
do
0.96 m tons
21 ha
Kanjur
10,000 tons waste /day
-- ha
street garbag
Deonar
e
7.88 m tons
co
decentralized affordable/ profitable hygiene infrastructure
-- m tons
m
20-28 km
m
er ci
al
ga
rb
110 ha
ag
e
5% of plastics plastic waste picker street rag picker waste collector hired domestic servants
30.000
waste collectors
6 workers + operator
travel distance reduced
mini truck
983 trucks
rick-shaw
support at the level of tools & infrastructure
rethinking the final product/ client/ potential market
cart bike
sac
sorting
reused box
shredding
shredder
washing
reused basket
roof drying
pellet machine
melting into coil
sac
pellet forming
PROPOSAL
Incorporating the informal actors into city waste collection and recycling schemes along the above successful models can be achieved as follows: -At an organizational level, a union of waste-pickers is essential in supporting individuals and advocating for their basic rights as citizens. -At city scale, a decentralized the waste collection and recycling system is proposed, delineated by neighborhoods within each ward, in such a way that waste-collectors and recyclers work in the same neighborhood that they live in. This allows optimized doorto-door pick-up service rather than landfill-based waste scavenging. This reduces travel cost of the collectors and increases efficiency of the picking and recycling processes. -Decentralized door-to-door pick up could also emphasize the segregation-at-source policy, on one hand this increases the awareness of the civilians, reduces work load on the waste-collectors and recyclers by facilitating a direct track-to-destination per type of waste. -Segregation at source, enforced in this manner, allows the waste collector further exposure and more agency to reject un-segregated waste. -For further efficiency, collectors and the civilians are connected through a smart platform, a phone app , for example. It allows real-time data collection linking the waste-collector to the closest available waste ready for pick-up, within the neighborhood perimeters of his employment. - Unified costumes, identity cards, and upgraded mobility infrastructure further expose this sector rendering those actors more acknowledged for their civic and environmental role. These cards may also be linked to access to services like healthcare or childcare and education. -The final product, colored pellets, can be rethought into what better fits the global market. Opportunities at 3d printable plastic for example are worth exploring, allowing for engagement with a diversified and expanded market. - Similar service-oriented models can be deployed within each neighborhood allowing residents access to basic infrastructural services that are otherwise not formally provided by the government. The installation of sewage systems in informal settlements , for example, is beyond the governmental or municipal agendas. In Dharavi, the ratio of population to toilet is 1500:1. Offering decentralized black water collection service not only upgrades the daily living conditions of the individuals but also allow opportunities for income generation. Product design innovations like Peepoo ensures human waste from open-defecation can be hygienic and collected. Ghanasan is a collaboration between Unilever, Water Sanitation for the Urban Poor, and product design firm IDEO. (WSUP, 2011) Deployed in Kumasi, Ghana, this innovation combines product design with a service-oriented scheme to collect human waste in containers that are collected by a local team. The waste is collected in tanks and used the collected waste to generate electricity, create fertilizers and other relevant bi-products. Working with issues of informality therefore, requires sector-specific innovations and multi-agency collaborations.
BENGALURU | harisudala: rag pickers into waste managers
Harisudala, Bengaluru igotgarbage. com
i got garbage | igotgarbage.com
Peepoo peepoople.com
Peepoo peepoople.com
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