Waste and Sanitation in India
Burning Mountains: Legacy Landfills
How decades of dumped waste created giant landfills that catch fire and pollute, and how cities are trying to clear them through biomining.
Many Indian cities have giant dumpsites where waste piled up for decades.
The mountains of waste
- Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill grew so tall, reportedly around 65 metres at its peak, that it was compared to the height of the Qutub Minar.
- Other large dumps include Deonar in Mumbai and Bhalswa and Okhla in Delhi.
Problems
- Fires: decomposing waste produces methane, which can ignite, causing fires that release toxic smoke.
- Collapses: in 2017, part of Ghazipur collapsed, killing two people.
- Leachate: toxic liquid seeping into groundwater.
- Health problems for nearby residents.
- Land: valuable urban land locked up.
Biomining
Cities are clearing old dumps through biomining:
- Waste is excavated.
- It’s sieved and separated into soil-like material, plastics, stones and other fractions.
- Recyclables are recovered; combustible material may go to cement kilns or energy plants; inert material is used for filling.
SBM-Urban 2.0, launched in 2021, aims to remediate all legacy dumpsites.
Progress
Cities like Indore cleared their legacy dumps and reclaimed land. Big city dumps have proved harder because of their size.
Preventing new dumps
Remediation only works if new waste is segregated and processed, so dumps don’t grow again.
A city biomines its old dump over several years, recovering plastics and soil-like material. The cleared land becomes a park and waste processing site, and nearby residents no longer breathe smoke from fires.
Old dumps catch fire, collapse and pollute groundwater.
- Indian cities have giant legacy dumpsites like Ghazipur.
- Dumps cause fires, collapses, leachate and health problems.
- Biomining clears old waste and recovers materials.
- SBM-Urban 2.0 (2021) aims to remediate all legacy dumpsites.
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