JK to reduce waste generation to 25% by 2025: Govt

Srinagar, Feb 9: Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to reduce waste generation quantity to 25 percent by 2025.

An official document of Housing and Urban Development Department said that 40 percent of municipal waste in the state is wet waste, which can easily be “composted and used as manure”.

Nearly 30 percent of the municipal waste comprises of plastic and metal, which can be sent for recycling to an authorized dealer and about 20 percent of it is e-waste, which can be recovered at door step, the document said.“It is proposed that by 2025 the state will reduce waste generation quantity by 25 percent,” the document reads.

The document says that information education and communication (IEC) plays a pivotal role in creating “awareness, mobilising people and making development participatory through advocacy and by transferring knowledge skills and techniques to the people”.

An official of H&UD department said that given the rapid urbanization and growing population, this sector (waste management) needs immediate attention.“The valley’s non-dumping options to manage waste have also shrunk drastically. Burning waste no longer seems viable because of environmental concerns and poor segregation of waste. Compost plants are not doing well because manure doesn’t sell, and again becomes garbage,” the official said.

“But municipalities must also set up the infrastructure and notify their solid-waste management policy under the 2016 rules. So far, it has remained confined to papers only,” the official said.

In Srinagar district, the Central Pollution Control Board report estimates that a total of 400 metric tons of waste is generated per day. At least 62 percent of this waste is organic in nature while the remaining is inorganic including 7 percent of plastic waste.“Civic bodies blame residents for not segregating the waste but what’s the point when everything will eventually be mixed-up? Segregation by residents will only work when the municipal bodies have complete door-to-door waste collection system and trash pickups have separate containers for dry and wet waste,” the official added.

The issues pertaining to solid waste are on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir, which has witnessed an increase of over 8 percent in a decade.
A recent report by NITI Aayog ‘Report of Working Group II, Sustainable Tourism in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR)’ has revealed that waste management was a huge challenge in Jammu and Kashmir.

The report says it will become much “more threatening” if immediate measures are not taken.