From Dumpsites To Development

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Towering landfills like Ghazipur are more than just urban eyesores; they’re a looming health threat! As cities struggle with legacy waste, some are turning to bio-mining to reclaim land and reduce pollution. Chandigarh’s Dadumajra dumpsite is one such effort, aiming to transform waste into reusable resources. With SBM 2.0 pushing smaller cities to act, could bio-mining be the solution to India’s waste mountain crisis?

Source: zerowasterecycler

If you have travelled to Delhi by road, you might have crossed a huge pile of waste which, to many, has appeared as a real mountain on their first sighting. This is Ghazipur Landfill. Allocated for waste dumping since 1984, the dumpsite had already crossed its waste holding capacity in 2002. Despite this, the civic body did not take any concrete steps to stop the garbage dumping.

Many Indian cities are creating such mountains of waste which are not only eyesores to the city’s image but also a constant health hazard for the residents. To manage their waste better, and so that they don’t meet the fate similar to Ghazipur dump, new solid waste management techniques are being tried out. Bio-mining is one of them.

Source: Kumbakonam dumpsite | The Week

Kumbakonam dumpsite in Tamil Nadu before and after biomining and land reclamation

Bio-mining is defined as the conversion of aged municipal solid waste into reusable resources and involves a scientific process of excavation, treatment and segregation. This technique not only mitigates pollution but also helps in reclaiming large acres of land that can be used for other development purposes.

One of the recent efforts of Bio-mining of legacy waste in India can be seen in Chandigarh city. The civic authority has appointed a private agency to process the waste at the Dadumajra dumpsite within six months through bio-mining.

With a goal of achieving “garbage-free cities”, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 (SBM 2.0) has mandated the cities with a population of less than 1 million to remediate the existing legacy waste dumpsites by March 31, 2023.

However, cities like Indore, Bhopal, Ambikapur, Kumbakonam, and Tirupati were successful in processing their legacy waste through bio-mining even before SBM 2.0 surfaced.

Management of legacy waste through bio-mining has created an opportunity to reclaim land as a resource from the dumpsite. Experts believe that to avoid long term damages, it is important to conduct post-mining monitoring of the reclaimed land before deciding on appropriate reuse.

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Read about the Dadumajra Bio-mining project here, and share your thoughts below.