From waste to health: 

From waste to health: 

Context

• Compost from biodegradable municipal solid waste will simultaneously clean up our cities and improve agricultural productivity and soil quality of our farms.

The challenge of municipal solid waste management

• processing and treating the different streams of solid waste,
• safe disposal of the residuals in scientific landfills
• instead of focusing on waste management for health, we have got sidetracked into “waste for energy”.

Benefits of compost and city compost

• City compost from biodegradable waste provides an alternative to farmyard manure (like cowdung)
• its rich microbial content that helps plants to take up soil nutrients.
• It provides an opportunity to simultaneously clean up our cities and help improve agricultural productivity and quality of the soil.
• The water holding capacity of the soil which uses compost helps with drought-proofing, and the requirement of less water per crop.
• Because of good water retention, farmers do not need second or third sowing if rains fail.
• By making soil porous, use of compost also makes roots stronger and resistant to pests and decay.
• Farmers using compost therefore need less quantity of  pesticides.
• City compost had advantage of being weed-free unlike farmyard manure
• City compost is also rich in organic carbon, and our soils are short in this.
• City compost can also be blended with rock phosphate to produce phosphate-rich organic manure

• The addition of compost or organic manure reduces nitrogen wastage, as its humus absorbs the nitrogen and acts like a slow release sponge.
• Fortification of soil with organic carbon is an essential element of integrated plant nutrient management as it increases the productivity of other fertilisers.

Efforts from the side of administration for promoting organic manure

• the Supreme Court had directed fertiliser companies in 2006 to co-market compost with chemical fertilisers.
• The Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 make the co-marketing of compost mandatory.
• To provide incentive for co-marketing to the fertiliser companies, in February 2016, the Government of India’s Department of Fertilisers notified a policy to promote the use of city compost by offering Market Development Assistance (MDA) of Rs 1,500 per tonne on the purchase and distribution of city compost through the rural outlets of these companies.
• In 2017, the MDA scheme was extended to compost manufacturers on bagged compost.

Some problems

• The MDA scheme has not worked well because of its administrative complexity.
• The high volume but low value nature of compost also makes it not so attractive for fertiliser marketing companies to promote its use.
• While compost manufacturers must meet the quality specifications laid down by the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO), it is equally important for fertiliser companies to make vigorous efforts to market city compost.

Conclusion

Urban  India generates approximately 70 million tonnes of municipal solid waste in a year, and assuming 15 per cent yield of compost, this would provide 10 million tonnes of city compost annually. Quite apart from cleaning up the cities of biodegradable waste, this would be a major and sustainable contribution to improving the health of our soil without further damage by excessive chemical inputs.