Beyond setting benchmarks for the grand organization of the Mahakumbh Mela this year, Prayagraj is also leading a revolution in legacy municipal solid waste disposal. This transformative model is steadily being adopted by major districts across Uttar Pradesh. Ashish Tiwari (IFS), Additional Managing Director (Forest Certification), Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation, shared with Clean India Journal how the Prayagraj model is turning towering waste dumps into freed prime land, at the same time generating revenue for urban local bodies
What is the scale of the municipal solid waste problem in Uttar Pradesh?
Of the 20,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste generated per day, UP processes around 60 per cent. The rest goes to the legacy side. Over a period — 10 to 15 years — when the compostable fraction of the legacy waste is decomposed, there still remains around 45 to 50 per cent of the waste that is non-compostable and non-recyclable. This intervention involves remediation and proper disposal of that legacy waste.
The role of the environment dept. is to bring everyone on the same platform, initiate discussions, execute pilots, make them successful, prepare SOPs based on that and disseminate. The government acts as the catalyst and actions are taken based on the collective wisdom of all stakeholders.”
– Ashish Tiwari
How has the government strategized waste management?
The government adopted a two-pronged strategy to deal with current and legacy waste. Current waste was being addressed by the government by investing in waste management facilities that even now continue to face challenges in functionality and viability. This waste continues to add on to the legacy waste. Dealing with legacy waste is necessary because it has negative environmental impact such as polluting of ground water and air and locking scarce land area running into tens of hectares.
Why was Prayagraj chosen as a model for legacy waste disposal?
Why Prayagraj? It is a city where transient population becomes very high every year because of annual festivities resulting in huge waste generation. The city also has at least six cement plants in its periphery of 300km. There was a huge dumpsite with around one lac 40,000 metric tonnes of legacy waste in 2022 that only kept growing. The non-compostable, non-recyclable plastic waste can be used by cement plants for co-processing and is called refuse derived fuel (RDF). This fuel is produced from combustible components that the industry calls Municipal Solid Waste (MSP) and is used to generate energy from waste. The Prayagraj model is a technically sound, economically viable business model which creates quality RDF with the right calorific value and moisture content that can be used by cement plants for co-processing.
What are the technical challenges in processing RDF?
The RDF must not contain any kind of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste such as bricks else when it goes in a cement kiln and into a shredding machine before actually mixing with the clinker, the blade of the shredder could get damaged. Other issues also need to be addressed before generating quality waste for cement plants.
What were the financial challenges in implementing the model?
Another challenge was transportation cost. Cement plants refused to bear it as the cost was more expensive than the usual fuel they were using. Appropriate conditions have also to be incorporated in the vendor’s terms of reference to make it economically viable for them. We brought the cement plant and the brand owners on one platform, told them that the transportation cost could be met by upfront payment by brand owners and in return for that cost, they would get the plastic processing credits by the cement plants.
Who were the key stakeholders involved in developing the Prayagraj model?
The study of the model and research was done by our team and stakeholders including GIZ, the cement plants, brand owners and the municipal corporation of Prayagraj. It took about seven months to get the RDF quality issue sorted out, including the installation of ballistic separators which was done by the vendors at their own cost. Once the quality of RDF improved, to our pleasant surprise, cement plants from Satna, Jabalpur and Katni in MP, on their own began collecting RDF from this site without any arrangement for transportation and processing. That is the beauty of this model.
How adaptable is this model for other regions?
The technology for bio mining is well-established, but technology implementation has to be customized based on local challenges. If you do waste characterization, the kind of waste which America is producing maybe different from the kind of waste Prayagraj is producing. There are also process challenges which are unique to every unit, be it small, medium or large-scale. In fact, challenges in a large area are actually easier to mitigate. The Prayagraj model has become the SOP for the state and it has already been adopted by Lucknow, which, within the last six months has remediated about 10 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste and successfully sent RDF to cement plants. The dump has now become a site for waste-to-energy plant.
Which other cities are following this model?
Agra, which has geographical advantage because cement plants in Alvar and Chittor are quite close by, is also following this model. The NCR region comprising the three districts of Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Meerut, is a hub for paper and pulp industries. These industries manufacture paper from imported waste papers which have a plastic coating. The huge dump of plastic which comes out when making paper pulp, is non-recyclable and a huge menace. We tied up this plastic waste with a major cement plant in Chittorgarh and now agriculture fields and fallow lands in Muzaffarnagar getting cleared of this waste.
What is the future of this model in waste management?
This is a long-term business model. It will get more refined in the years to come. If urban local bodies themselves become waste processors, then from their own waste they can generate EPR credits which can give them revenue. This revenue can be used for upscaling and modernising their waste management systems. It becomes a closed loop. The initial investment for remediation of legacy waste as per the recent bids is around `400-500 per MT. If the urban local body itself becomes
the waste processor, this cost will come down.