Preparations in full swing to clear legacy landfills by 2026

Context

A public dashboard showing the status of dumpsites, and remediation plans under Swachh Bharat is likely to be soon.

Background:

Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 was launched in 2021 with the aim to make cities free of garbage and ensure safe water by the end of the five years.
The remediation of all legacy landfills in the country was one of its targets.
Online portal would contain the exact number, size, and remediation plans of the sites, which are estimated to be around 2,200.
These “sizeable” landfills each contain at least 1,000 tonnes of waste.

Understanding legacy waste:

Legacy wastes or aged wastes are the wastes that are collected and kept for years at some barren land or a place dedicated to a Landfill (an area to dump solid waste). Legacy waste can be grouped into four categories:
- Contained and stored wastes (wastes stored in tanks, canisters, stainless-steel bins, etc will come under this category)
- Buried waste
- Contaminated soil and groundwater
- Contaminated building materials and structures waste.

Composition of Legacy Waste: Legacy waste composition majorly depends upon the age of the landfill. The legacy waste composition is primarily based on four significant fractions. Such as,

Fine soil / sand-like material: These are the decomposed and mineralized organic wastes mixed with silt, sand, and fine fragments of construction and demolition (C&D) wastes. This is the major fraction in the majority of landfills.
Scrap polymeric and combustible materials: These include plastics, paper, cardboard, textiles, etc.
Stones (greater than 20 millimeters in size)
Miscellaneous items: These include broken glass, sanitary waste, diapers, and metallic fractions such as razors, needles, etc.

Challenges in Managing legacy waste:

Presence of heavy metals
Not enough data available on legacy waste
Do not have enough capacity to process these landfills
Unable to follow the CPCB guidelines

Potential applications of legacy waste:

The polymeric wastes obtained from dumpsites can be utilized in manufacturing refuse-derived fuel (RDF).
Electricity produced from RDF can be utilized by energy-intensive industries and households.
Construction and demolition (C&D) waste are to be recycled into building materials and bio-soil that is used to fill in low-lying areas after passing a check for heavy metals.

Significance:

Possible to track the progress of cities’ action plans for the remediation of legacy landfills.
The plans cover everything from the remediation of the landfill to the eventual reuse of the land.
It is expected that clearing of the landfills, would free up 15,000 acres of land.

About Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U) 2.0:

It announced in Budget 2021-22, is the continuation of SBM-U's first phase.
It was launched on 1st October 2021 to achieve the vision of ‘Garbage Free Cities’ over the next five years.
- The government is also trying to tap safe containment, transportation, disposal of fecal sludge, and septage from toilets.
SBM 2.0 Mission mandate for every Indian city is to stop as much as 80 per cent of its waste from reaching a dumpsite by the end of 2026.
It will be implemented over five years from 2021 to 2026 with an outlay of Rs.1.41 lakh crore.
- SBM-U's first phase was launched on 2nd October 2014 aiming at making urban India Open Defecation Free (ODF) and achieving 100% scientific management of municipal solid waste. It lasted till October 2019.