waste – The KGP Chronicle

Studying Plastic Pollution in the Ganga with National Geographic

Ganga, the life source of Northern and Eastern India is a prominent area of study by researchers from diverse disciplines, a key among them is the environment. In 2019, the National Geographic Society organized the expedition “Sea to Source: Ganges” to scientifically document plastic waste in the Ganges watershed and support holistic and inclusive solutions. A proud partner in this women scientists-led expedition was IIT Kharagpur along with the Isabela Foundation, University of Dhaka, the Wildlife Institute of India, and Wild Team Bangladesh.

Researchers and students from an environment-focused group at the Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Kharagpur participated in this transboundary expedition. The group was involved in estimating the mismanaged plastic quantities from municipal solid waste all along the river in India and come up with potential solutions and improvements in waste management systems to avoid the leakages of plastic waste from land to the river.

Talking about their role in the study-based expedition, Prof. Brajesh Dubey who heads this group at IIT Kharagpur said, “We carried out the waste characterization from the city/town dumpsite waste samples, as well as the samples collected along the river from Rishikesh to Howrah. It helped in estimating the extent of mismanaged plastics in the waste, the type of plastics present in the waste and the estimation of the fraction of mismanaged waste plastics getting into the river Ganga. A model is also being developed using the field data to have a realistic estimation of the plastic pollution transport from land to river and eventually to the ocean.”

The IIT research group also performed a photographic survey of waste management practices and issues for each city/town. Further, they held and discussions with city officials on waste management plans, identification of infrastructure gaps for the city/town and suggestions for improvement in the implementation of the solutions for better plastic waste management. The solutions proposed include the proper waste collection in segregation mode, capacity building in terms of infrastructure development as well as skill improvement of manpower involved in waste management practices at ULB levels. The research group is in touch with several ULBs for the improvement of their waste management infrastructure.

While the expedition was carried out from May to December 2019, the study was carried out till February 2021. The report has been recently made public by the National Geographic Society on their blog. Read More

Photo by Sara Hylton.

Times of India

IIT KGP Study Proposes Pandemic Waste Management Policy

IIT Kharagpur Study Proposes Solid Waste Management Policy to Counter Environmental Crisis during Pandemic

Covid-19 is impacting our daily lives in an unprecedented way, with one of the major impacts being on waste management programs across the world. While reduced economic activities due to COVID-19 have certainly made air and water cleaner as per many reports, change in the dynamics of plastic, food, and biomedical waste generation has however stirred the woes of solid waste management.

A recent study by IIT Kharagpur researchers has led to the formulation of a set of environmental recommendations for solid waste management under the pandemic situation. The researchers have explored the challenges faced by the solid waste management sector, typically cases in biomedical waste, plastic waste, and food waste management, during the pandemic and the underlying opportunities to fill existing loopholes in the system. [Download Paper]

The study led by Prof. Brajesh Kr. Dubey and his research group at IIT Kharagpur’s Dept. of Civil Engineering, has laid emphasis on the avenues of circular economy, sustainable technologies and development of green business models by analyzing the economic prospects in the post-pandemic world.

“It should be well understood that the mess created by the COVID-19 crisis should not be solved at the expense of solving the longer-term issue of the climate crisis. The post-COVID-19 world would need a systems-level approach on a global scale to address the issue of solid waste management and protect our environment through economic stimulus with low carbon footprint,” said Dubey.

The study recommends the adoption of new technologies in solid waste management by means of socially viable designs scoring high on environmental and economic feasibility. Incentive policy could be introduced for adopting homogenous plastics, eco-friendly bioplastics, biodegradable materials with higher recyclability. This would enable the standardization of plastic products and packaging leading to economic recycling models. AI-powered sustainable technologies can be deployed to manage efficient sorting and recycling of waste. This shall be further supported by means of the ‘refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle’ mantra of the circular economy.

“A typical example could be food waste management. Local production and consumption of food along with recycling and reuse leads to the reduction of food waste generation and recycling of food waste. Such models need to be introduced in overall solid waste management as well along with spreading awareness about the concept,” remarked researcher Hari Bhakta Sharma.

Another area the study has focused on is the involvement of human resources in waste management. The researchers advocate for the provision of critical status to sanitation workers due to the risk involved in their work during a pandemic situation. This would involve supporting the educational and healthcare needs of their family members as well. Workers handling biomedical wastes also need to be trained adequately of international standards. Awareness needs to be created by means of universally accepted color-coded segregation of biomedical waste for proper classification of infectious waste, preventing excessive waste generation.

The researchers believe increasing public visibility through media and other platforms could indirectly bring behavioral and attitudinal changes in society. However, they also prioritized the need for inclusion of waste management in the disaster management protocol including response measures and operational guidelines. The study has been published in the international journal of ‘Resources, Conservation & Recycling’

Cite Paper: Sharma et al., 2020, H.B. Sharma, K. Vanapalli, V.R.S. Cheela, V.P. Ranjan, A.K. Jaglan, B. Dubey, Sudha Goel, J. Bhattacharya,

Challenges, opportunities, and innovations for effective solid waste management during and post COVID-9 pandemic

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2020 (2020), 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105052

Download Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105052

Media Coverage:

Outlook	Careers 360	Yahoo News
Republic World	NDTV	The North East Today

Contact:

Project: Prof. Brajesh Kumar Dubey, Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, E: bkdubey@civil.iitkgp.ac.in

Media: Shreyoshi Ghosh, Executive Officer, E: shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

For news about IIT Kharagpur visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in

Way to Zero Waste

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While passing through the newly developed, urban elite settlements, the dumpsites waiting treatment are becoming increasingly common. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in India continues to remain a neglected area with inefficient source segregation. Further, the moisture content in waste adds to India’s challenge in solid organic waste management because of our food habits and socio-cultural habits. This is leading to environmental hazards of pollution of air and nearby water bodies, surface and subsurface soil. Added to this, decomposing organic waste generates methane which is the single largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. With the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan set for a new lease of life, a crucial avenue which is now being explored is efficient urban waste management.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Brajesh Kumar Dubey from the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur has adapted a process called Hydro Thermal Carbonization (HTC) for Indian conditions which can effectively manage mixed MSW with high moisture content.

Through the process, most of the mixed MSW can be converted into biofuel, soil amendment and absorbents.

The current waste incineration processes adopted from the developed nations are primarily focused on treating drier waste content. This requires high energy input to combust mixed MSW with high moisture content.

“India’s tropical weather, open collection systems and mixed waste make the output yield much less fuel-efficient. Only 20-30% of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste is being recycled to biofuel. Hence there is a need to develop treatment system which can address the challenge indigenously,” opines Prof. Dubey.

Here is the goal which has been scored by the research team. They have developed a technology to convert the organic fraction of MSW into ‘Hydrochar’ by using a batch reactor. The moisture in the waste is used to the advantage of the process which uses water for the reaction. The process has increased the resource recovery yield to 50-65% of urban organic waste.

“The process novelty lies in the use of water for the reaction thus the moisture in the MSW gets used during the recycling process without requiring any removal of moisture from the segregated waste or high energy intake. This is effective for mixed municipal solid waste management in India,” explained Hari Bhakta Sharma.

For example, 1gm yard waste and 4gm water are being used in the laboratory reactor. The waste output is 1gm of biofuel with a calorific value of upto 24.59 MJ/kg, while the water remains available for reuse.

The key to the success of the technology lies in designing a proper industrial-scale HTC reactor with improved heat integration system. The technology can be deployed by municipalities at various locations within a city thus ensuring easy management of logistics of waste.

Another novelty of this technology is the zero waste scale reached through this process.

“Once the yard waste is entered into the process, the outputs generated are all usable including the water which can either be reused in the processor can be converted to biogas or methane through anaerobic digestion,” explained another researcher Sagarika Panigrahi.

The biofuel generated as the recovered output is comparable to lignite coal which could significantly address the fossil fuel depletion issue and helping to curb air pollution issues, pointed out Prof. Dubey.

The product can further be used as an absorbent to manage soil contamination.

The calorific value or energy yield and quantity yield however are inversely correlated and depends on the end-use of the product.

“So if you are looking for biofuel, the temperature at which the reaction is conducted needs to be kept very high which will increase the calorific value of the fuel however decreasing quantity yield, while in the case of the soil contamination absorbent, the low temperature will increase the product quantity yield with low energy yield,” confirms Hari Bhakta Sharma.

“This could significantly help brownfield sites or contaminated industrial sites or landfills,” added Prof. Dubey.

According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) estimates, there exists a potential of about 1700 MW of energy from MSW and sewage. Of this, only about 24 MW have been exploited, according to MNRE. Thus, less than 1.5% of the total potential has been achieved. The waste to energy mandate of Govt. of India could also be met through this innovative process.

“As of July 2017, thermal-based Waste-to-Energy plants in India have a capacity to process 5,300 tons of garbage and produce 53.5 MW/day. There is a big market on waste treatment and this technology can serve well for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste,” hoped Prof. Dubey.