Title: Role of informal sector in the dynamics of municipal solid waste compositional change from household to dumpsite

Authors: Meena Deswal; J.S. Laura

Addresses: Department of Environmental Science, MDU, Rohtak, India ' Department of Environmental Science, MDU, Rohtak, India

Abstract: The study was undertaken to understand the changes occurring in the composition of the municipal solid waste as it moves from the waste generating households to dumpsite via the secondary storage community bins. Waste was sorted into compostable and non-compostable fractions (plastics, paper, glass, leather, textile, metal and inert). At the household level, 48.2% of the waste was compostable fraction and was higher in households of low income group colonies. In case of plastics and inert, a drastic change was observed in their percentage composition from colony to dumpsite. Plastic decreased from 36.75% in colony to 4.59% at dumpsite, the changes occur due to waste segregation and collection by the informal sector. Inert increased from 3.63% in colony to 46.34% at dumpsite; this result from deposition of construction waste. The paper highlights the extant of influence of the informal sector in the segregation of recyclable materials from different levels of un-segregated waste storage.

Keywords: municipal solid waste; waste composition; informal sector; dumpsite; community bins; kabariwalas; ragpickers; income group.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2022.122682

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2022 Vol.29 No.3, pp.313 - 323

Accepted: 08 Jun 2020
Published online: 05 May 2022 *

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