Studying the Municipal Solid Waste Management System in Meerut City, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Solid waste is the unwanted and discarded solid materials generated from different places such as household, residential, industrial and commercial; activities in a given area. Meerut is the second largest city in the National Capital Region (NCR) after Delhi. Meerut Municipal Corporation (MMC) also known as Meerut Nagar Nigam (MNN) is sole agency for collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste management. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the status of municipal solid waste in Meerut city. Data was collected from different organisations and through primary survey. Out of total municipal wards, 250 respondents from different income groups (HIG, MIG & LIG) have taken into account in order to know the ground realities and their perception. Observation method and discussion was conducted with the MNN officials. The total amount of waste generation is directly related to the density of population, economic status and land use pattern of the particular area. There is positive correlation between waste generation and socioeconomic development. Per capita of municipal solid was 0.46 kg per capita/per day in 2006 which touched the figure of 0.53 kg per capita/per day. All the high population density wards have high rate of waste production and low density of population zones, corresponding with low quantity of waste generated. The street sweepings and collection of garbage from the receptacles are carried out by the sanitary workers of civic agencies in Meerut. In this stage, collection is not very efficient even though large numbers of private sweepers are engaged in waste collection from door to door at a nominal charge, particularly in big apartments and group housing societies.