Seeking innovative ideas to tackle the problem of municipal solid waste in cities, government today said there is a need to change the mindset and explore possibilities of generating revenue out of the garbage.
The solid waste management is a biggest problem in cities, said Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal at a seminar on finalisation of manual on municipal solid waste management.
However, Aggarwal said "This manual alone is not going to solve our problems. We got to change our mindset and not just confine to collection and transportation of garbage.
"Let's treat garbage as a very valuable material and I request that all of us should think whether it is possible to generate revenue out of garbage from every household," he said.
Referring to the sale of old and discarded materials, Aggarwal said "When we sell our old papers we get some money. We earn revenue from this garbage. Can we do something that instead of throwing even if it is kitchen garbage, we can get some revenue?"
"If it is properly collected and segregated and somebody who buys it can do some value addition to it and sell it further. Can we have some new ideas, new technology so that this can be converted into a new thing? he asked.
Emphasising on recycling of garbage, he said there should be ways that generation of garbage is less.
"Can we adopt innovative ways so that we do not generate so much of garbage?" he asked and added "Whenever we buy something we get a huge package. Can we reduce this packaging. Even if there is some packaging can we do it using biodegradable materials? Can we do something that this materials can be recycled and reused ?"
He said towns have crucial role in generating jobs and growth of economy. "We got to ensure that each of our town is neat and clean. Unless we take care of the solid waste in our towns, it is not possible to make the towns livable. It will not be possible to make towns catalyst for economic growth."
Urban Development Ministry in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has prepared a revised manual for municipal solid waste management.
Aggarwal said "This manual will go a long way. The growth rate which has come down will go up again upto more than 10 per cent and towns are going to play very important role in the growth of economy."
He also said information technology has a role to play in the development.
