Garbage is Gold

The raw material in India is ample, 700,000 tonnes of electronic waste is produced every year. From a 40- foot container-load of printed circuit board, chemical engineers can recover about 10 kg of gold.Plastic and rubber waste, such as empty wafers packets, poly bags, stickers and cello tape are turned into resources through reverse engineering by converting inorganic waste into energy(diesel oil).Somebody else’s waste can become consumable for others in form of compost, biogas, or diesel oil.

In India, 300 grams of waste is generated per capita per day. Of this, about 5 per cent is plastic and rubber.From this wastage,waste management companies can generate about six lakh tonnes of diesel per year, which can be used to run a truck for six crore km. Organic waste is a much bigger business proposition – it constitutes 35 per cent of all garbage generated in India. Water management, construction waste and debris (30 to 40 per cent) and hazardous waste, including bio-medical waste, too, call for professional management.

There is huge scope for recycling of batteries, tubelights and CFLs, which requires skilled professionals.The country lacks experts in bio-medical waste management.There is a lot of potential in this field, especially in a developing country like India. A lot of waste management work is being done by private and non-governmental organizations. There has been some move in government set-ups towards professional garbage management.

Apart from domestic developments, the international carbon credit market has had a positive spin-off. Recently, Municipal Corporation of Delhi earned Rs 5 lakh worth of carbon credits for one of its plants.With carbon credits, the profitability and viability of waste management projects has turned around. Hence, there’s surely some profit in this field, say the experts.

To study this management, science at the plus-two level is required. After this,a Bachelor’s in environmental, civil, chemical or mechanical engineering, microbiology, or even biotechnology would help. Admission to these courses is through competitive exams.A Master’s degree in environmental engineering would be an added benefit.One can also do a BSc programme and follow it up with a Master’s (MA/MSc) in environmental studies.Various institutes offering courses in this field are

· Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Bachelor’s in EE
· Indian Institutes of Technology, multiple locations, various programmes (jee.iitd.ac.in)
· University of Delhi MA/MSc in environmental studies, MSc in environmental biology (www.du.ac.in)

Rahat Bano

Source: www.hindustantimes.com