Planet Earth – the ”Trash Bin”

Do you know which country is the biggest garbage producer ?

The planet Earth has been converted by we people to a Garbage dump . 2.0 Billion Metric Tons of domestic garbage is produced in this world per year. If this garbage is spread on the Singapore land it will produce a layer of 2.30 mtr of trash to whole of Singapore, with just one year of the Domestic trash produce in this world. This does not includes Industrial and items other than garbage handled by any city Municipality. China along with USA generate 25% of the Garbage produced in this world.

Heaps of Garbage

We human for many years have been so much irresponsible that every one of us on this earth is producing on average of 300 Kg / per person of Domestic Garbage every year and this garbage is piling up years by years in our own planet. Industrialisation and materialistic world added to problem to the increasing of garbage which we are generating continuously. New York city produce garbage  as high as 1700Kg /per person/ per year. If we do not stop producing more garbage , we will be living in an areas surrounded by stinky Trash Dumps in the future.

Garbage Producers of the world

Poor waste management system

Cities of most of the developing countries are littered with trash due to lack of funds and resources to handle it. Also they do not have any plan to collect and recycle the garbage. On the other hands some cities of the rich countries have garbage piled up in their streets as the garbage produced is so much that it can’t be handled with the available staff and machinery. Most of the developed countries are trying their best to recycle the domestic garbage. The garbage which could not be recycled due to insufficient capacity of Municipality’s authority are dumped in to Garbage Dump by making mountains out of it , which gives stinky smell  to the surrounding areas.

Garbage Re-cycling Status

3R Policy to combat Garbage littering

Municipality authorities and the Governments throughout the world are struggling to collect and dispose off the domestic garbage . They have been continuously teaching their citizen about garbage management. 3R policies are adopted where R stand for Reduce , Reuse and Recycle by the Municipality waste management Deptt advising the citizen to reduce buying items which generate waste , OR reuse the items rather than throwing it in the dust bin , OR Recycle the items bought for house hold. For an example in the Dubai city I am #ESKmehta living , Municipality started a programme in 2010 for targeting domestic waste as 555Kg /person/per year , but despite putting best resources and management the city is producing waste of 1,000Kg/person/year. The main reason is import of major consumable and food items in to Dubai  comes with heavy packaging and also bad habits of its citizens for producing excessive wastage.

Problematic Plastic Waste

50% of the domestic garbage is made of kitchen related waste which can be decomposed and converted in to manure. 20 % waste is made of papers and card board which can be recycled. 15% is of Plastic which is major waste material damaging the environment and ocean water , as it takes more than 500 years to get decomposed.  5 % waste is Timber and other 5% is glass which can be crushed for recycling and 5% is metal which can be melted in foundry and reused. To handle 100% domestic waste and recycle it fully is beyond any country’s capacity. To handle plastic waste is a every country problem.  

Zero Waste country – Sweden

Sweden is the only country in the world which recycle almost 100% of its Domestic waste. Swedish produce 460 Kg of domestic garbage / per person/ per year . Sweden with a population of 11.0 Millions produce domestic waste of 5.0 Million MT anually and all the type of waste is recycled. Sweden has been running more than 30 power plants by burning garbage and meeting 10% of country power requirement. In their  Motala recycled plant 200,000/Ton of trash is treated for recycling .  With a tight control on Govt garbage production policy , reduction of garbage waste is hitting the running of power plants. This has lead to Swedish govt importing 1.3 Million MT waste per year from Norway and UK to keep their waste recycling and power plant running.

Trash Island of Singapore

Many small countries are facing shortage of space to use it as landfill for waste materials. Singapore which is too small have end up making an artificial lagoon to dump their domestic waste. Singapore has made an artificial island called ‘’Smakua waste land’’ in the sea which is of the size of 350 acres. In this specially created waste land recycled waste and other domestic Garbage is dumped away from Singapore city.

India – a Garbage champion

India with a population of 1,400 Millions  produce 70 Million MT of domestic garbage per year. India do not have successful recycling system hence most of the trash are dumped in the Garbage dump which are becoming like mountains. India could hardly recycle 20% of domestic trash. India produce 4.0 Million MT of plastic waste out of which 50% is recycled.  Delhi is a leader in India by producing 11,000 MT / day of Garbage. Gazipur dump in Delhi which is called Mount Everest of garbage is 65mtr tall  ( equal to 20 story building ) . City of Indore which is considered to be cleanest city of India is doing best in Garbage recycling by 6 bin segregation system handling 1,100 MT of garbage , which treated for different recycling options.

Bad Recycling setup in India

India still lacks a cabinet level minister in the centre who is fully dedicated to Trash management. Trash managements are left to State Govt and in turn to Municipalities who have no expertise and funds to handle the domestic garbage. Most of the municipalities do not have enough garbage bins , Garbage towing tractors, designated disposal area , staffing , funds and plans how to handle the city waste.   Most of the Indian streets sanitation are badly maintained and are full of filth with trash littering around every where. Indian by nature like their home clean but do not care about cleanliness of their streets , roads , parks and other public places, and lack basic attics of keeping the city clean ( sorry to say that ).

 All participate to reduce Trash

We as an individual can teach the younger generation to make a habit of reducing wastage. We should use re-usable Jute or other bags for shopping and shun using plastic bag. Do not waste cooked food, cook only to the requirements. Try to purchase items which are packed in recyclable material like card board. Avoid buying too much of plastic items.  Restrict unwanted shopping. Use re-usable metal bottle for water. Make home compost from kitchen organic waste and use it in kitchen garden and flower pot. Everybody should have a mindset of reducing wastage.