Urban organic solid waste: practices in Hyderabad

Conclusions

One of the main problems in organic waste reuse and recycling is the lack of source separation, which affects the quality of the organic waste routed through the municipal waste stream negatively. This prevents effective use of a major portion of municipal waste generated. Efforts should be put into promoting locally acceptable methods of separation. That there is a potential market for ‘pure’ organic waste and well-composted waste is indicated by the existing private sector activities of the single-source bulk generators of waste who have little difficulty in having their waste removed through private trucks. The study in chapter 11 also supports this conclusion.

Composting organic waste remains a difficult technical process in the prevailing conditions in Hyderabad. Large-scale public sector composting has proven financially unviable and without a market for the product, while small-scale decentralised composting with the help of NGOs and CBOs remains complex, and not well accepted by local residential communities.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Anil Yadav and Umamaheswar Rao, CESS research students, in the collection of field data. In a later stage Ms. R. Dhanalahshmi helped us in cross-checking some of our earlier findings and in completing the data set.