134 S.GALAB, S. SUDHAKAR REDDY, ISA BAUD
MCH crews, street waste pickers, and municipal crews. At the dumpsite, inorganic
waste is separated and sold by dumpsite waste pickers.
Household members, servants, office boys and tricyclists sell waste mainly to itinerant
buyers and retail traders Street waste pickers, dumpsite waste pickers and some tricy-
clists, itinerant buyers and small traders sell to retail traders and wholesale traders
Retail traders sell some waste to wholesale traders in other states, and the recycling
units located in Hyderabad and surrounding districts. Some waste from retail traders
and wholesale traders is reused. Wholesale traders also sell the waste to other states
and recycling units. Although this is the general picture found in Hyderabad (see
Figure 7.1) the flows vary in complexity according to the type of materials involved^4.
The waste flows generated in Hyderabad are presented in diagrams 2 to 5, according
to type of waste material. Comparing the diagrams brings out several differences.
First, the flow of metal scrap and glass bottles is more complex than the flow of paper,
plastic and glass waste, since reuse in this case as well as recycling are involved.
Secondly, the flows of waste are not limited to the Hyderabad Corporation area and
the surrounding municipalities, neither in terms of generation nor in terms of recycling
units to which waste is finally sold^5. This indicates clearly that the city is not a closed
system in terms of recycling flows. It also makes it very difficult to assess the contri-
bution that waste taken out of the municipal stream makes to reducing city waste
flows, because neither the full quantity of waste generated in Hyderabad is known nor
the amounts purchased from outside the city by the recycling enterprises.
- This also applies elsewhere in India, as described in Dhanalakshmi and Iyer, 1999; Baud and Schenk,
1994; van Beukering, 2001; Snel, 1997. - Metal waste is also purchased directly from the building industry and other manufacturers