Abhinav Kumar Jha

A report by the Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) revealed that India generates over 62 million tonne (MT) of waste in a year. Only 43 MT of total waste generated gets collected, with 12 MT being treated before disposal and the remaining 31 MT simply discarded in waste yards. Most of the waste generated remains untreated and even unaccounted for.

Due to rapid urbanisation, economic growth, and higher rates of urban consumption, India is among the world’s top ten countries generating municipal solid waste (MSW). Inadequate waste collection, transport, treatment, and disposal have become major causes of environmental and public health concerns in the country.

“The requirement of the facility has gone to the next level now. Now people are not only talking about cleaning and security but about cleaning science. Now they are talking about green.” said Rahul Kamble, President, Krystal Group (service delivery).

“There is a lot of waste management we are doing. We are now responsible for picking up garbage from the door to the processing plant. We are managing 200 tonne of garbage every day,” Kamble added.

Kamble also said that Krystal Group is in collaboration with the Vishnu Prasad Research Centre (VPRC), which focuses purely on waste management. Krystal Group collects the garbage from houses and brings it to the processing plant, where scientists of VPRC recycle the waste and convert it into usable materials.

“Today, many of the technologies that are implemented for sustainability are not the finest. So, if you take a water treatment technology, there are technologies like SBR and MBBR, but all the technologies that are getting implemented in industries are not sustainable. That is why, even with all the technologies, we cannot even get a drop of clean water,” said Vishnu Prasad, Founder, Vishnu Prasad Research Centre.

Talking about the technologies VPRC uses, he said, “We have created a technology where we can purify the water. It is an alternative to the existing water treatment plant where this plant is running at IIT Madras, and we are working closely with several governments,” the VPRC President added.

“We have adopted a zero-sludge process. There is not even a drop of sludge that is being generated out of our waste management system,” said Vishnu Prasada. Experts were speaking at the BW Sustainable World Conclave 2024.