Delhi dialogue panel holds meet, seeks proposals for solid waste management

Dr Maley is a Mumbai-based scientist who has worked extensively in fields such as agronomy, biotechnology and environment with a special focus on solid waste management.

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Government officials, however, said that questions over “plans of municipal corporations for the future, environmental hazards of waste-to-energy plants, the ‘weird’ nature of all pilot plants, technologies being tested only in the country’s capital and, most importantly, the economics and financial models of waste disposal technologies used till-date,” went unanswered.

The conference deliberated over the possible ways to implement the Delhi government’s promise to adopt best waste management techniques from across the world.

“The Delhi government wants to encourage recycling by segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste at the household level. It also wants to find a solution to the problem of littering and disposal of construction debris in public places,” an official said.

“The existing gaps in the functioning and future plans of the New Delhi Municipal Council and the East Municipal Corporation were discussed in detail when they made presentations on their waste management technologies,” a government official said.

NGOs working in the sector of solid waste management raised concerns over various issues like environmental justice and freedom from toxics, solution for disposal of plastic waste, interests and concerns of more than three lakh waste pickers and those of more than 50,000 people engaged in the segregation of plastic waste at India’s biggest plastic trading market in Tikri Kalan.

The DDC will also recommend the Ghazipur land fill improvement plan and other vulnerable landfill improvement plans to the Delhi government.