There is No Waste.

In this world when our Philosophy (Geeta) as well as Modern Science says nothing can be destroyed or its value diminished, WASTE is misnomer and a transit phenomenon, a creation of human mind and society.

Let us consider, material A is a useful thing and after use it’s transformed or residual material is B for which presently we do not have any economic (also may be due to socio , religious reason)  use. So in common language we call B as waste. But think a while, does its intrinsic value (of elements) lost? No. We discard B, because either we have not found any use for B or the alternative material C, for which B can also be put to use, is available at a lower cost or price. This price is the cost paid by customer for C and not the total cost incurred by society or nature in producing C. This can be illustrated by taking A and C as pure water and B as any impure water. Thus in spite of the fact that water scarcity is there, we continue to make available pure water at very low price, thus making process of purifying impure water (B) and make it comparable to A is relatively costly and never done at large scale. ( Similarly, not in this context but, for example, the price paid by consumer for a kilogram of rice, wheat, sugarcane is very much less than the cost of producing  if  real cost of water  is taken in to account). So basically nothing is waste, but it is our human society’s value system that makes a useful product a waste.

However, these values and cost are Economic (demand- supply -price), Scientific (cost to change the form etc), Social (belief about use etc); they are dynamic and change with time and can be changed over time by proper policies. Take the example of Cow dung and urine, which, with more and more facts coming out about their utility and change of perception, these items have changed from a waste to important source of medicine and natural fertilizer. This has extended economic utility of cow beyond milk producing period.  Let us hope in near future same will happen about all other animals, including human being’s, excreta. In fact human excreta was also a source of fertilizer just a century ago, but in the name of progress and civilization we have adopted flush-mode system and a source has become a big water polluter (Sewerage reaching river and water bodies). Even today in many parts of country farmers request and pay shepherd ( Gaderiya) to rest their sheep in their farm for a few days, so that farm can get organic manure. We are also witnessing once again a push to “Son Khad” (of human excreta).

Similarly, now for anything, however small may be, there is rethink and government, industry and society is pushing for reuse of waste material. Like making bio-fuel from agriculture waste, bricks from cement factory ash, roads from plastic waste and so on. New building of Supreme Court has used lot of waste building material. Further, in a bid to save Mount Everest from trash, a company conducted cleaning campaign and collected around 10,000 kg of rubbish from the region. The items were segregated, processed and recycled as raw materials for various products. From the  waste collected, two tones have been recycled and sold online. RCube Charity Store in Pune is engaged in selling second hand durables received in donation. Thus apart from reusing the items it has been bridging the gap between the haves and have nots in Pune for seven years. Medals for Tokyo Olympic 2020 have been made of metal extracted from old items mostly e waste.In another example, since  year 2016 the Prof. Satish Kumar of Hyderabad has converted 50 tones of “end life” plastic ( that cannot be recycled) in to fuel. At present, his company is producing 200 litre of petrol on a daily basis out of 200 kg of plastic and selling the same to local industries for Rs. 40/50 per litre.  All kinds of plastics, except PVC and PET can be used without the need for segregation.

Above examples are miniscule compared to waste being generated and unfortunately, presently predominant thinking in waste management is, waste is inherent in human activities and production process and disposal is the only solution. This problem is aggravated by the fact that, many of human habits and social values are such that materials are discarded before their economic value ends. Similarly, even though technology has improved human life for better, it has contributed to generation of waste as old items are discarded quite early; add to this trick of marketing companies which for small value addition promote new product or shows earlier product, habits and values in poor light without any scientific proof. Further the generation of waste is directly proportion to prosperity of individual and community that makes many useful items ( being  well used earlier before prosperity) being discarded in the name of taste, liking and fashion etc. Like, discarding cars, clothes etc within short span of time, because something new has arrived or does not add to social prestige.

Even though not justifying inequality in society, it must be remembered that due to inequality many of above mentioned things are being reused and waste is being reduced by poor class of society. Similarly, many of packaging material, like bottles, plastic sheets carton etc, are being used by needy person as usable items. This list is endless and will still expand if we, by economic means (incentive /disincentive) and change of social behavior make reuse a movement. Problem is, the group which misuses resources are looked up with admiration while, the group which uses the discarded items is looked down in society. This must be stopped and reversed. Rag pickers and Scrap dealers must be given proper social recognition.

We also need to change basics of Waste Management. Presently waste management (or waste disposal) is understood as the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception (from the end of life for product) to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process. However, the aim of the waste management should be to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of end waste. The waste hierarchy should be represented as a pyramid because the basic premise is that policies should promote measures to prevent the generation of waste. The next step or preferred action is to seek alternative uses for the waste that has been generated i.e. by re-use. Further next is recycling which includes composting. Following this step is material recovery and waste-to-energy. The final action is disposal, in landfills or through incineration without energy recovery. This last step is the final last resort (should not be not the first) for waste which has not been prevented, diverted or recovered in spite of best effort.

To put in other words, thinking about low or nil generation of waste and treating it as intermediate product for reuse is still missing. This is stressing out the local bodies of its resources and creating hillocks of waste outside or inside city limits. Nobody is thinking why we need ½ kg like pack for 50 gm of actual material inside it.  The way advertisements are regulated it is time we regulate packaging industry also. Packaging is only one example, if we look around us we will find many of such practices which are very high on waste generation without being actually useful and needs to be phased out. Thus Waste management concept should be inbuilt the life-cycle of a product. It should begin with design, and then proceed through manufacture, distribution, and primary use and then follow through the waste hierarchy's stages of reduce, reuse and recycle. Each stage in the life-cycle offers opportunities for policy intervention (like pricing, certification etc), to rethink the need for the product, to redesign to minimize waste potential, to extend its use. Low waste generation product should be lower priced than high waste generation products. Product life-cycle analysis can be way to optimize the use of the world's limited resources by avoiding the unnecessary generation of waste.

In this respect we need to learn form Mother Nature which has her own “waste disposal” solutions in place for millions of years. Consider the tree outside our house: it‘disposes’ off its leaves in autumn. In human world this is considered ‘waste’ and in haste sent to a landfill. Not so with Nature- the soil welcomes it’s once –a- year feeding each autumn and sets breaking down the leaves nourish itself. It is really interesting to observe, how in Nature “One organism’s waste is another’s feast”. Living bodies assemble themselves by eating, drinking and breathing in nutrients. After the death of body, disassembly is performed by organism called decomposers. Decomposers are organisms that transform the bodies of both plant and animals back into the basic constituents they were made from.  Bio degradation with help of decomposers is a natural process that happens when micro organism, such as bacteria and fungi, secrets enzymes that chemically break down or degrade dead pants and animals. In other words, biodegradation means to rot or decay. It is actually nature’s way getting rid of dead plants and animals or thing made from them. Thus bio-degradation is important for two reasons.

a.                   It causes the breakdown of the waste products and remains of dead organism so that they do not pile up.

b.                  It releases valuable nutrients into environment for reuse by other organism. But humans have a habit of making their environment messy.

In the animal world, we often speak of scavengers with contempt as cowardly, dishonorable creatures, who sneak up on the predators we admire and steal what they have caught. Yet they are the cleaners of the ecosystem. We need to realize that every part of nature including the scavengers and decomposers is essential for our own well-being.

Against nature of The Nature, which generates zero waste, as seen above Humen have a habit of making environment messy (just observe what we done to Mount Everest, within sixty five year when mankind put first foot on it, today it stands for a place full of trash and waste), deliberately or otherwise- oil, pesticides, toxic chemicals and other harmful materials ruin otherwise healthy ecosystem. Cleaning up of such wastes by conventional chemical or physical is both time consuming and expensive. Fortunately, for these also Nature has several processes in place for treating wastes and pollutant- oil spills are cleaned by microbes, which break down oil into methanol, water and carbon dioxide. There is one problem with these bacteria – what if they find their way to the oil wells? Natures also do have – toxic munching plants.

So coming back to start of article, material B which is today termed as waste is tomorrow’s valuable resource. This conversion process, as described above can be manmade or natural. This tomorrow may be, one week (wet bio waste) or one million year (who knows, today’s plastic waste dumped in sea may get converted in to fuel or under evolution, new species may emerge who can eat plastic and self survive and be part of nature’s cycle). There is example of this in history, today’s calcium, potassium etc is nothing but remains of dead animals and coal etc is nothing but transformed dead plants. Same way, a billion years ago oxygen was poisonous gas for that time’s habitat but new species evolved for whom oxygen is “Life Giving” gas. 

In Conclusion we should learn from  Nature’s cycle that forms a balance in the natural world in which there are no wastes. Everything is broken down and reused. Our planet and all life on it have survived for millions of years because natural processes recycle life.  However, in recent times, human activities are changing the environment and disturbing the natural cycles (like when we put garden waste into plastic bags and ship them to a landfill instead of adding them to a compost heap). We are upsetting the fine balance that exists in nature, and the results may be DISASTROUS. Nature recycles - shouldn’t we too? We can be part of it by recycling everything that can be recycled, using products made from renewable resources and avoiding the use of toxic products (pesticides, plastics etc). Government intervention and social changes can do a lot in this direction. In another context, an example of what can be achieved with policy push, is government’s push for electric vehicles by way of order (to phase out other type of vehicles), and incentive (subsidy for purchase and income tax deduction on interest payment).Government needs to push similar policies for low generation of waste, reuse and recycle of waste. 

Lastly we should not only learn from nature but trust her also that in ultimate analysis nature will convert all (man produced) waste in resources (time is the only factor).It is our choice how we use resources to the extent maximum for ourselves and present generation or allow waste to accumulate (a resource for posterity, human species or any other evolved species one), but it can be said for sure that, waste is human invention and transit phenomenon and in the long run there is no waste.