Milieu of waste
The city witness drastic changes in temperature during winter and
summers. As a result, the waste generation quantity in the city is not
uniform throughout the year. The winters in the city are severe and the
mean temperatures during winters are in a range of sub 5°C. Due to the
severe cold, the commercial activities of the city come down
drastically. As a result of which the waste quantity generation from
commercial establishments and other related waste generators reduces.
During the summer, the temperature becomes normal and increases 16°C to
29°C. In the summer increased tourism activities result in increased
floating population and increased commercial activities. In summers,
most of the hotels and other tourism-related institutions experience
full occupancy. As a result of which the quantity of waste generated in
the city increases.
The primary collection of waste in the city is conducted by a
combination of the door to door collection, street sweeping and by
collecting the waste disposed of in open locations. The waste from door
to door collection is collected using hand carts, wheelbarrows, and
Hopper Vehicles. The streets of old city areas are very narrow. The door
to door collection, street sweeping and drain cleaning is conducted
together in these narrow streets using hand carts and wheelbarrows.
There are about 1200 Hand Carts and 50 Wheel Barrows for the said job.
The wastes from the open points are cleared by
safaikarmacharis and filled into tipper trucks. In the
external areas of the city where the streets are broad, tricycles and
Hopper Vehicles are used for door to door waste collection. There are
about 1000 tri-cycles and 110 Hopper Vehicles for a door to door
collection in the external areas. The waste collected using wheelbarrows
and handcarts are disposed into nearest collector bins. The collection
bins in the city are of 2 types- dumper bins of 3 m capacity and
compactor bins of 1 m, 2.5 m, and 5.5 m. There are about 450 compactor
bins and 110 dumper placer bins & 132 Twin Dumper Placer Bins placed
across the city. These bins are cleared using 18 dumper placers and 10
compactor vehicles. The collector bins are cleared every day. The waste
collected by tricycles, Hopper Vehicles, and 4 wheeler vehicles is
disposed of waste depots/compactor vehicle. The wastes from waste depots
are cleared by tipper trucks (Fig 1). The waste from the waste depots is
loaded to tipper trucks using front end loaders. The waste from open
points are cleared by safaikarmacharis using
wheelbarrows and disposed into nearest bins (Fig 2). Single bin dumper
placers, compactors, and tipper trucks are used for secondary
transportation of waste from intermediate storage points to disposal
site. The waste carried by these vehicles is dumped at the landfill site
located at Achan which is at a distance of 7 km from the city
centre.
The dumping site land has an area of 64.5acres / 516 Kanal and is owned
by SMC. The waste received at the site is dumped into landfills and
covered. The biomedical waste is handled separately by the generators.