Gain Not In My Backyard: Solid Waste Management In Indian Cities Curated By Sunita Narain Conveyed As Interactive EBook

being almost one of the only books of its kind, and for being as thorough in its research, NIMBY, you have my.
/. Read the book if you've ever wondered where your waste goes, I picked up the book because I have been interested in this issue, Rather, I've been deeply concerned, Right across where I live is a garbage bin and every day I see it fill up in no time! I keep wishing I could do something to help and reading this book is perhaps a start.

The book offers a fairly comprehensive account of the issue of solid waste management, including key data and some interesting case studies.
Next, I am hoping that I can pick some key points to make a ten minute presentation which I can share with friends and colleagues.
Didn't make quick progress on it, Was left aside during shifting, Picked it up again and read it religiously till finished, Learnt a bit about waste management and a lot about Indian scenario, sitelinkThis is from my blog entry on this book:

I just finished reading the new book Not in my Backyard and viewing the short accompanying documentary of the same title.
Both are put out by the Centre for Science and Environment, publishers of Down to Earth magazine, This is such important workto do a survey of solid waste management across the country and to share the findings, particularly what works especially well.


The title comes from the idea that no one wants some one else's waste in their backyard, and in recent Indian history there has been quite a lot of agitation around the country with people coming together to fight cities dumping in villages and other such problems.


The book is quite well designed and organised, And although it's predominantly about waste in India's cities, there is so much that is relevant to villages and towns, The first chapter covers waste generation the second chapter is on waste management the third on legislation the fourth on finance the fifth a survey of Indian cities the sixth on action people are taking or have taken the final chapter on reinventing how we move forward.
The film, which is onlyminutes, highlights three of the top cities in India whose solid waste management programmes are worth learning from: Alleppy, Kerala Panaji, Goa and Mysuru, Karnataka.


There are some really important findings in this book, not that it would be hard to infer these things, but the main point I think any of us interested in waste management needs to consider is incentivising and penalising citizens and companies and organisations alike.
This seems to be the common denominator in most of the successful case studies here, Whether it's in the form of a tax or a fine, people start segregating and stop littering when they know there are consequences of some kind.


Generally, I think this is an important book, but there are a few problems I have with its content:

There is quite a lot of discussion about cities claiming they are striving for or have achieved zero waste.
It seems clear that neither they nor the writers have a sense of what that means, Zero waste is fundamentally about reducing consumption and that is a topic totally absent,

Which brings me to my next criticism: the book does not discuss consumption at alleither refusal or reduction, This is something that ideally could have been saved for the final chapter and it's a huge oversight,

While many chapters, especially of more successful cities, mention their educational programmes, they seem to not see this as a major part of the solution.
This, too, could have easily been something to include in the final chapter about how to reinvent our approach to waste management.


Their discussion of the city I live in, Bengaluru, I think is quite lacking, They leave out the tireless work the humans at Solid Waste Management Round Table as well asBinsBag have been doing to integrate citizen involvement at municipal planning and organising and implementation levels of the new solid waste management rules.


This just shows that there are so many other stories to tell in India and many other aspects of the problem need to be explored to see what's working and what can be improved upon.
About the Book
The book is an attempt to highlight the present status of solid waste management in the country and what should be the way ahead.
It is clear that cities are producing more and more waste and solid waste generation in our country is increasing, In such a scenario, we need to reinvent waste management in our country,
The book highlights solutions to this growing problem and shares case studies from cities that have been able to resolve the issue of solid waste management
It is ideal for practitioners, regulators, consultants, NGOs and students.


Press Release
CSEs Clean City Awards conferred on three Indian cities
Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu to give away the awards
CSEs book on solid waste management in Indian cities, Not in my backyard, will be released by Naidu
CSE rated Indian cities on their management of solid waste metros like Delhi feature at the bottom of the heap
The book is one of the first of its kind attempts in India to understand the state of solid waste management in the country, the numbers behind it, the gaps that exist and the path towards harnessing the opportunities

New Delhi, July,: Alappuzha, Panaji and Mysuru are three of the cleanest cities in India, with municipal waste management systems that actually work says a latest rating by Centre for Science and Environment CSE.
The three cities will be awarded CSEs Clean City Award here today by the Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

Mr Naidu will also officially release CSEs latest report on solid waste management in Indian cities, titled Not in my backyard.
CSE director general Sunita Narain said: "This book started as a surveywe wanted to know simply which city is Indias cleanest.
We knew that once we found out which is the cleanest, we would also find out what makes it so, This would give us the answers for future policy, "
Apart from several new and exciting findings, what also became clear was the imperative need for policy changes in garbage management.
CSE had assumed that this was a muchresearched area, which, however, was not the case, The last survey to understand quantity and composition was done over a decade ago, The methodology used to calculate waste generated is to simply extrapolate an assumed quantity estimate with the population, There is however no real onground data available, In addition, not much information is available on the composition of waste regarding organic, biodegradable, or plastic, or the quantum, In essence, what had started as a survey was turning out into a gap analysis,
In, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG published a damning report on the "first generation" of solid waste management and a lack of compliance with MSW Municipal Solid Waste Rules.
The report found waste was collected inper cent ofsampled municipalities, segregation was done inper cent, storage inper cent, transportation using covered trucks was done inper cent of the sampled municipalities and onlyper cent had waste processing capabilities.
The report also found that only six municipalities had landfillsothers were dumping in open sites,
As an example of how bad things were, in December, a convoy of garbage trucks working for the Kochi municipality, was caught in Bandipur national park in the neighbouring state of Karnataka, smuggling waste from the city for illegal dumping in the forest.

According to Central Pollution Control Board CPCB estimates, overper cent of Indian cities with a functional collection system dispose of their waste in landfills.
These landfills are not made according to stipulated sanitary standards, In, CPCBs monitoring of cities found thatout ofcities were making use of landfills, covering,hectares of land, Anotherplanned to create landfills, Since land was becoming scarce within city limits, municipalities were looking for "regional sites" to dump their waste,
In, the Department of Economic Affairss position paper on solid waste management argued that urban India was already producing some,MT of waste a day.
It projected that by, India would be producingmillion tonnes of waste annually needing over,sq km of landfills, This is an area equal to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai put together,
CSE deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said: "As India becomes more literate and politically aware, most cities are encountering stiff resistance when they attempt to dispose of waste in somebody elses backyard.
In Pune, Bengaluru, Panaji, Alleppey and Gurgaon, village communities have been up in arms against the dumping of waste by a neighbouring

city.
This resistance will continue to grow, Cities are also finding it difficult to secure environmental approval for their landfills, "
Sunita Narain said: "What is absolutely clear to us as we researched for this report is that technology for waste disposal is not the problem.
The problem is twofold. One, households and institutions are not responsible for management, through segregation or payment of the waste they generate, Two, there is an absolute collapse of financial and institutional human capacity and so accountability in our municipal systems, "
"In this scenario, the best option is what we have found exists in Kerala, where municipalities have withdrawn from the waste business.
People segregate and compost informal recyclers collect and sell, This is perhaps the most exciting model for future waste business in the country, And even if it cannot be emulated completely, it holds important lessons for other cities," added Narain,
The book release and the Clean City Awards will be followed by a daylong workshop on Julyth,, to share best practices from across the country in solid waste management.
Representatives from the cities rated by CSE, municipal authorities and regulators, media people and civil society functionaries will come together to deliberate on the three key phrases of the workshop Reinvention, Opportunities and Way Ahead.
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