Solid Waste Management and Recycling

S. GALAB, S. SUDHAKAR REDDY AND JOHAN POST

CHAPTER 3

COLLECTION,TRANSPORTATION AND

DISPOSAL OF URBAN SOLID WASTE IN HYDERABAD

3.1. INTRODUCTION

Since 1993 the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) has introduced the

so-called ‘Voluntary Garbage Disposal Scheme’ (VGDS). In 1999 the programme

operated in over 1,000 residential colonies covering about 175,000 households. The

basic idea underlying the scheme is to promote people’s participation in solid waste

management through their welfare organisations. The MCH provides communities

with a tricycle free of charge to enable house-to-house collection of garbage. The

welfare organisations employ waste pickers – paid through a monthly fee of Rs 10 per

month per household – to collect and transport the garbage to notified vantage points

where the MCH collects it for transportation to one of the dumpsites. Households are

supplied with two waste bins to facilitate separation of organic and inorganic waste at

source. The waste pickers further segregate the inorganic waste and sell valuable

materials to waste dealers The organic materials are supposed to be brought to nearby

sites allotted by the MCH in order for CBOs/NGOs to convert it into manure through

vermiculture (see chapter 10).

This initiative attests to the desire on the part of the local authorities to further improve

the performance of the city’s solid waste management^1. The gradual involvement of

the private sector in sweeping and waste collection work since 1995 is another token

of the MCH’s pro-active policy. There were good reasons to try and utilise the capac-

ities of other actors in the urban arena in public service delivery. In the mid 1990s the

proportion of uncollected waste was estimated at 25-35 percent in Hyderabad (Omkar

and Srikant, 1996; EPTRI, 1997)^2. At that time the garbage was cleared once in a day

in some areas, once every two days in others and in some areas only once a week.

1. Another initiative that can be mentioned is the Clean and Green Andhra Pradesh Campaign that was
   started in 1998. The State government has issued orders declaring every second Saturday of the month
   as Clean and Green day. The idea is that residents, municipalities, private contractors and NGOs join
   hands on a voluntary basis to clean up the city.


2. It is not entirely sure if this figure includes or excludes the illegal settlements within the municipal
   boundaries.

37

I. Baud et al. (eds.), Solid Waste Management and Recycling, 37-60.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.