Trash

India, like most of the world, has a problem with waste disposal. 

Many cities and countries throughout the world have been able to cover their trash, keep it out of sight, keep it from bombarding our senses.  India, or more specifically Mumbai, has not had this success.  You cannot walk down any street, ride in any vehicle, or visit any facility without this bombardment. 

So a little geography; Mumbai city is only 26 square miles (169 square miles including the suburban areas).  It is a harbor city, basically unable to expand horizontally so it expands upward, on top of itself.  There are more than 20.5 million people living here, the majority packed onto those tiny 26 square miles (close to 14 million people).  The average humane generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day.  Multiply that by the 20 million inhabitants of Mumbai, and you get 39,000 tonnes of waste per day.  However, a recent article puts Mumbai as generating 15,050 tonnes of solid waste per day, so let’s just stick with that number- 15,050 tonnes of waste per day.  And where does it go!?

As I’ve written before, human waste is not pumped underground like we would expect/like.  People without toilets use the train tracks/ ocean/ streets for their daily droppings. 

Mahim creek runs through the city and empties into Mahim bay.  You cannot get close to this creek (15 feet deep and a dozen yards wide) without the horrible smell coming upon you, forcing a gag reflex.  Yet this is where many of the slum communities have been established, on the banks of this creek.

There are several landfills in the Mumbai area, but the oldest and largest is Deonar, located just barely outside of the city.  The smell reaches miles in every direction and it is so impressive it can knock you down.  This is where the majority of the waste from Mumbai city ends up- thousands of tonnes per day.  This is also where many people, men, women and children, are living and working, digging through the trash to try and make money. 

The name given to these people is a “ragpicker”.  They literally live amongst our waste, sifting through it in search of something they can sell.  Many levels of ragpickers exist in Mumbai, from people sifting through street garbage to garbage collection pickers to landfill pickers, but to me, those living in the landfill are the most devastating.  Small children are born and raised in this environment.  They don’t attend school but instead spend their days (and nights) digging through hazardous waste and sharp objects that can be extremely harmful to their health (not to mention mentally unsettling) in an attempt to feed themselves and their families.  I can only imagine people living under these conditions understand the health risks they subject themselves to every day.  But maybe not to the extent the more educated population does- the implications on future health problems, the high risk of cholera or dysentery, respiratory problems, risk of infection… The list goes on and on.

It’s just alarming the severity of this problem.  It makes me sick to think the conditions in which many people in this city live.  It wrenches my heart knowing that life as a ragpicker is more profitable than many other jobs.  Or the only job opportunity someone may have.  I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m thankfully to be working towards proper waste disposal in rural India, hopefully building awareness about the harm of these landfills.  Hopefully, in the long run, reducing the mass quantities of waste, lowering the number of ragpickers.  It’s possible (Oslo, Norway produced 150 tonnes of waste PER YEAR!) but it’s got to start somewhere…

Outside my building- every day