Sustainable Architecture

A Report on
Current status of Solid Waste Management of
Agra city and providing Sustainable solutions

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. Vandana Sharma Shivani Singhal
18M807
Introduction: Metropolitan cities in India with growing population, changing life styles, migration of
People from rural areas to cities and rapidly growing up of tourism end up generating an Enormous
quantity of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) every day. By and large, the Municipal Bodies / Urban Local
Bodies (ULB) in various cities collect the MSW, transport it to the dump yards and dispose it off in open
ground dumping or non-sanitary landfill. These landfill sites are an environmental hazard – emanating
methane causing Greenhouse effect, smell & dirt causing health problems, and leachate contaminating
the Ground water, etc.

In Uttar Pradesh, Solid waste Management is one among the major challenges faced by the state
governments in urban areas. The problem of waste management is much more acute in metropolitan
cities like Agra. Poor Collection and inadequate transportation are responsible for the accumulation of
M.S.W at every nook and corner of Agra city. The management of M.S.W is going through a critical
phase, due to the unavailability of suitable facilities to treat and dispose of the larger amount of M.S.W
generated daily in metropolitan cities. Improper handling of waste disposal causes an adverse impact
on all components of the environment and human health.

Objective:
 To overview the present status of integrated solid waste management in Agra city.
 To undertake an internet survey of the status of waste generation with particular reference of
Agra city, in order to assess the present integrated solid waste Management practices such as
waste generation and disposal by household, performing of Agra Municipal Corporation (Nagar
Nigam Agra), Awareness and concern of local population on integrated solid waste
management.
 To analyze the new sustainable practices going in the sector of Solid Waste Management.
 To suggest some new sustainable practices that can be applied in processing the solid waste
management.

Study Area: The city of Agra is situated on the Western Bank of river Yamuna on National Highway
(N.H-2) at about 200 Kms from Delhi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Agra is geographically located at
27°12' North latitudes and 78°12' East longitudes. It has an extremely strategic location on the
confluence of three distinct geo-physical regions namely the plain of Uttar Pradesh, the plateau of
Madhya Pradesh and the desert of Rajasthan.

This city has a approximately 1,686,976 inhabitants (2010census), one of the most populous cities in
Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most populous in India. Agra can also refer tothe administrative district
that has its own headquarter in Agra city. It is a major tourist destination because of its many splendid
Mughal-era buildings, most popular the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri three of which are
categorized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is also an important node in The Golden Triangle (Delhi,
Agra, Jaipur)
 Fig 1
Regional setting of Agra city

The city also falls in the center of the four-culture areas- Braj, Bundelkhand, Rajputana and western
U.P. Both these factors have played significant roles in shaping the life and history of the city.

Being centrally located on the national map, Agra forms an important regional urban center. All traffic
whether by rail or road going south invariably passes through Agra thus making it a major transport
node at the regional level as well as at the national level? This has also led to an extremely rapid and
haphazard growth pattern. The city has a vibrant economy and reasonably good physical infrastructure
as compared to many other one million plus cities in India. As a result, the Nagar Nigam has planned
for modernization of its Solid Waste Management Services in the city and to do away with littering of
domestic waste and commercial waste on the streets, dumping the waste in open places along the
roadside, transporting it in uncovered trucks and disposing off the waste unscientifically at the
dumpsite.

Current status of Solid Waste Management:

Agra is estimated to generate about 1500 MT of waste every day. The per capita waste generation rate
is about 492 grams/person/day. Whereas, as per the NEERI Strategy Paper on SWM in India, (February
1996) the per capita waste generation in the city with population range of 10-20 lakhs should be 270
grams per capita per day.
The main causes for the high quantum of M.S.W. generation is the continuous urbanization of the
area. Over population affluence relating to the increase per capita consumption and also rapidly
growing technologies for most economic goods which are changing from returnable/re-usable packing
(glass containers) to non- returnable packing(plastic containers). This has resulted in increased solid
waste generation and potential health hazards as well as adverse impacts on the environment.
Some of the other causative factors include, the ineffective management of huge quantum waste due
to the lackadaisical approach towards waste management practices, public apathy, lack of political will,
population growth and changing patterns of urbanization. Indiscriminately disposed solid waste which
litter public spaces is commonplace in Agra city now.
A Kanpur based private agency Hari Bhari Recyclable pvt. Ltd. had got the contract from Agra Municipal
Corporation in 2017. But as it was not able to deliver required results even after repeated notices, the
AMC ceased the contract and is now working on a more efficient system for the waste management.

Management of Municipal Solid Waste

The different stages of the management of Solid waste in Agra city are:

Primary Collection:
The proposed Integrated Solid Waste management System for the city envisages for storage of waste
at source in a segregated manner in all the households, shops and establishments. To begin with,
necessary awareness will be created among the general public about the source segregation of the
waste at every household, storing them at source itself from which will be collected by the developer.
Biodegradable waste and Non-biodegradable waste will be stored in separate bins. The developer will
collect the waste stored at the source from each household, every day by using containerized
pushcarts. Besides, developer will also carry out the street sweeping and drain cleaning activity.

Storage of waste:
The Biodegradable (organic) waste collected at the households will be transferred to the Green
Coloured bins/containers and the Non-biodegradable waste will be transferred to White Coloured
bins/Containers separately at identified storage locations by developers.

Transport of waste up to Transfer station

The Biodegradable (organic) waste and Non-biodegradable waste stored separately in the mobile bins
will be lifted and transported by means of hydraulically operated Refuse Collectors and Dumper Placers
on a day-to-day basis to the Transfers stations.

Setting up of Transfer Station

The scope of the selected developer will include construction of transfer stations, procurement of bulk
waste carriers, transportation of waste from transfer stations to the processing & disposal facility and
operation and maintenance of the above till the term of the concession period.
The waste from the transfer stations are to be transported to the processing cum disposal facility
located at dumpsite through Bulk Waste carriers. The Recyclable waste can be sold to recycling
industries or recycled by the operator or other users.

Setting up of processing facility (Composting Plant)

The processing plant will have a composting facility and the selected private developer will have the
freedom to set-up a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Plant from his own resources. In other words, the grant
component will be available only for composting plant. The selected developer has to construct a
compost plant and operate and maintain it till the end of term of the concession period.
Closure of the Existing Dumpsite
At present there is no sanitary landfill site in Agra. One site at Kuberpur is under development for
sanitary landfill by Agra Jal Nigam on an area of 75 acres under supervision of Agra Nagar Nigam. The
disposal is carried out following the method of crude dumping where the waste is neither spread nor
covered. In some areas the garbage waste is recklessly burnt in open dump yards placed on the main
highway road. The present dumping site is at Shahdara on Agra- Firozabad road that is now exhausted
and now the vehicles are dumping the waste along the road margins. The site has been abandoned as
its capacity is exhausted and also posing a threat to environment and ground water pollution.
Therefore it is decided to close these existing dumpsites by leveling, shifting, compacting, grading and
closing them as per MSWM rules, 2000.

Setting up of Disposal Facility (Sanitary Landfill)

The Non-biodegradable waste transported from the transfer stations and the inert materials such as
street sweepings and rejects from the compost plant shall be collected separately and thereafter
disposed in a Sanitary landfill. The treatment and disposal facility will have green cover with suitable
plantation. The proposed Sanitary Landfill is to be designed for 20 years All required measures for
preventing pollution would be ensured both at the treatment and disposal facilities.
The scope of the selected developer would be construction of the SLF, disposal of inert/ non-
biodegradable waste into SLF and Operation and maintenance of the facility till the end of their life
period.

The present scenario of solid waste management in Agra city is as given in the following tables.

Functional Element Detail

Segregation of Storage at Source
Primary Collection
Waste Storage Depot.
Transportation
Generally absent, waste is thrown on streets.
Does not exist, waste is deposited on the streets and picked
up through sweeping.
Very unscientific, waste is stored on open sites/ Masonry
enclosures. A few containers are however, is use.
Manual loading is open trucks/ Partly dumper placers.

Frequency of Removal Irregular /Alternate day/ Once in three days/ Once in a

week
Processing
No processing is carried out except WTE Pilot plant at
Sikandra.
Disposal
Crude landfill at Kalindi vihar and Kuberpur Unauthorized
dumping in open space.
Type of waste on different sampling sites
LANDFILLING METHOD IN AGRA
In Agra there is no legal landfill site for the dumping of the solid waste collected. There is a landfill site
on Tundla road, which is used by the people and the Nagar Nigam for land filling. But the condition of
the site is so worse that it not only harming the people nearby living there but also it is nowadays
affecting the other people and also it affects the ground water under the site.

The disposal of garbage in the world is a problem that continues to grow with the development of
industrialized nations and the growth of population. Since the beginning of time people have needed
to find a way of disposing of their trash. Since then we have come a long way and have developed
types of waste that cannot simply be dumped into a hole.

There are many different methods of disposing of waste. Landfill is the most common and probably
accounts for more than 90 percent of the nation's municipal refuse even though Landfills have been
proven contaminates of drinking water in certain areas. It is the most cost affective method of
disposal, with collection and transportation accounting for 75 percent of the total cost.

The government and the Nagar Nigam, which deals according to the condition and requirement of the
Agra city, propose a landfill site in Kuberpur..

Kuberpur Landfill Site:-

In association with a private company, Mumbai-based firm Hanjer Biotech Energies. Firm the Agra
Municipal Corporation (AMC) has made operational a waste plant at Kuberpur Landfill site. The plant
has the capaity to recycle 20 metric tonns of biodegradable solid waste into compost, which will soon
be sold in the open market by the partnering private company at subsidized rate. Also AMC has started
making compost by using green waste from parks and flowers offered at temples. The waste is
converted into compost near Kothi Meen Bazaar. the private company assigned the contract to
operate and manage the plant will sell the compost in the open market at rates determined by the
government.

Problematic Practices of M.S.W Management :

 The municipal workers and contractors of municipality of Agra city are engaged in collection of
un-segregated garbage (biodegradable and rubbish (non biodegradable) from bins irregularly
resulting as a over dumping of disposals in the existed bin beyond capacity. This over dumping
was due mainly to regularly discarded household wastes, industrial and commercial areas
refuse.
 It is usually seen that the lack of awareness and carelessness by the municipal authorities are
the principal causes of excessive waste dumps and pollution.
 Insufficient number of waste transport vehicles causes overloading of trucks and spreading of
various wastes on the roads through which they move.
  Open land disposal of solid wastes is associated with the emission of inflammable gases like
methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) and H2S and also illegal incineration practices.
 The worst is that very often, unable to clear them out, the municipal workers and contractors
set them on fire only to produce toxic smoke polluting the surrounding air which creates the
adverse impact on health.
 Indiscrimination dumping of waste in and around the city is rampant. The different types of
municipal solid waste generated mostly from houses, streets, public places, shops, offices and
hospitals. Management of these types of waste is most often the responsibility of municipal or
other governmental authorities.
 The activity is mostly oriented labour intensive and 2-3 workers are provided per 100
residential served. The municipal agencies spend 5- 25% of their budget on M.S.W.
 A typical waste management practices performed by the sections of lower and middle income
community specially in Agra city.
 It is also observed that waste management workers were engaged for only 3 to 4hours while
the prescribed working hours is 8 hours from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. per day with also no
average working time per vehicle maintained by municipality of Agra city.

Problems in Agra due to improper Solid Waste Management

Entire city is suffering from actuate household garbage and rubbish, street sweeping, construction and
demolition debris, sanitation residues, trade and non hazardous industrial refuse and treated
biomedical solid- waste, open defection near railway line and colonies is scattered all around the city
due to extremely poor waste management. Some of the common problems that arise due to them are:

Environmental impacts

1. Leachates from refuge dumps percolates into the soil and contaminate underground water.

2. Scavengers and stray animals invade the roadside garbage and litter the waste over large area
causing much aesthetic damage to the atmosphere.

3. Waste products when burnt like plastic and rubber pollute the atmosphere with noxious fumes.

4. Organic solid wastes emits obnoxious odor on their decomposition and make the environment
polluted.

Health hazards

1. Vectors like rats and insects invade refuse dumps and spread various diseases.

2. During handling and transfer of hospital and clinic wastes, disease transmission may take place.
3. Water and food contamination through flies causes various diseases in humans as dysentery,
diarrhea and amoebic dysentery.

4. Rats dwelling with infectious solid wastes may spread diseases like plague, salmonellosis, trichinosis,
endemic typhus etc.

5. Water supply, if gets contaminated with pathogens present in solid wastes, may result in cholera,
jaundice, hepatitis, gastro enteric diseases etc.

6. Choking of drains and gully pits by the solid wastes results in water logging which facilitates
breeding of mosquitoes and results in the spread of diseases like malaria and plague.

Ongoing projects for the sustainable improvement of Solid Waste management:

1. Decentralizing the waste collection process: Door–to-door garbage collection is the main
component of waste management under the Swachh Bharat Mission. For this, a decentralized
plan has been developed. Five private companies will manage door-to-door garbage collection.
The plan is aimed at improving maintenance of sanitation and hygiene in the city. The city has
been divided into 5 parts for proper monitoring of cleanliness works. In Tajganj zone, a private
company, Urba Associates, has already started door-to-door garbage collection. Four different
firms will soon start collecting garbage in the remaining four zones – Hariparwat, Lohamandi,
Shahganj and chatta. The civic body aims to implement the plan in the other zones from April 1,
2018.

According to a senior AMC official, earlier also door-to-door garbage collection system was
implemented. But it failed to produce desired results as it was centralized. The company, Hari bhari
Private Limited, which was given the contract, was not able to arrange required resources and manage
manpower. Proper monitoring of sanitation and hygiene situation in the city was a big challenge.
Therefore, a centralized system was discontinued and a plan was prepared to divide the city in 5 parts
to manage door-to-door garbage collection. The five companies would be able to arrange all the
required resources more easily and be able to deliver effectively.

2. Setting up of Waste-to-energy plant: The municipal corporation is working on a plan to

develop a facility to process solid waste into energy. The Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) authority has
given a green signal for the plan. According to officials, work on a highly advanced waste-to-
energy plant is likely to start by the end of the current financial year, I.E. 2018 following the
nod of Union environment ministry. The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has
already signed a power purchase agreement with a private company to develop the
infrastructure for the same.
A waste-to-energy - or energy-from-waste - plant converts municipal and industrial solid waste
into electricity and/or heat for industrial processing and for district heating systems – an
 ecologically sound, cost-effective means of energy recovery. The energy plant works by burning
waste at high temperatures and using the heat to make steam. The steam then drives a turbine
that creates electricity.

Waste-to-energy isn’t just a trash disposal method. It’s a way to recover valuable resources. Waste-to-
energy is a vital part of a sustainable waste management chain and is fully complementary to recycling.
Today, it is possible to reuse 90 % of the metals contained in the bottom ash. And the remaining clinker
can be reused as road material. Waste-to-energy is one of the most robust and effective alternative
energy options to reduce CO2 emissions and replace fossil fuels.
3. Special treatment to the Petha waste: Agra- the city most popularly known for Taj Mahal is
also famous for a sweet delicacy called “petha”, which is made from winter melon in the oldest
streets of the city. But what is a rich delicacy to the tourists visiting the city is a becoming a
grave concern for the citizens of Agra. The waste created by this informal petha industry is
causing air, land and water pollution which has reached catastrophic levels.
Few points are -

 Total of 1,000 petha units operational within a localized area of 3-4 sq. kms.
 200 Tons of petha waste is generated every day. This creates a staggering 70000 Tons of petha
waste every year. All of this waste is dumped in the open.
 Open dumping causes the waste to rot, thus attracting insects & infectious bacteria.
 This results in frequent epidemics of malaria, dengue and enteric fever.
 Open dumping in drains causes this waste to mix with other plastic waste which pollutes river
and ground water.
 This is a critical health and environmental hazard being faced by the city dwellers.

Since petha is actually a fruit, it is biodegradable. If it’s not mixed with any other plastic and industrial
waste, it can be treated to make compost. By actively engaging with petha manufacturers, a NGO have
already started making compost with petha waste. Going forward, they can treat 1000 Tons of waste
this year and make organic fertilizer from it. This will not only remove the waste from the living
environment, but convert it into a rich fertilizer for the soil. Thus, there is a double impact of treating
this waste. By this, they convert a vicious cycle causing negative effects, into a virtuous cycle with
positive benefits.
Additionally, this compost when sold in the market generates revenue which is used for paying waste
pickers and incentivizes waste creators to keep the environment clean. Some active NGOs are setting
up a Waste treatment facility which can treat 1000 tonnes of petha waste in this year. By treating this
waste, we would produce 250 tonnes of compost/organic fertilizer. This would be sold to farmers to
make 200 acres of land fertile. By cleaning up this waste, we will improve living conditions for 1000
people in this localized area.
The treatment facility will be showcased to the UP Pollution Control Board, Yamuna River Connect
program, and other environmental agencies.
Sustainable practices around the Nation that can also be implemented:

1. Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management: ISWM is a comprehensive waste

prevention, recycling, composting, and disposal program. To reach an effective system it should
be considered how to prevent, recycle and manage solid waste with methods that best will
protect human health and the environment. Also, the ISWM includes evaluation of the local
conditions and what needs there are in that particular community. Then the most suitable
waste management activities for these conditions should be selected and combined (USEPA
2002).

The major ISWM activities used are; waste prevention, recycling, composting, controlled combustion
and disposal in properly designed, constructed and operated landfills. All of these activities require
detailed planning, financing, collection and transport (USEPA 2002). With a combination of these
activities in the way most suitable according to the local conditions within the community and the local
environment, an ISWM program that can bring a positive development within the waste sector can be
achieved. Additionally, this will also help in reducing GHG emissions and by that slow the negative
effects resulting from climate change.

The complete integrated MSW management system includes:

(i) Waste selection
(ii) Material recovery facilities
(iii) Incineration and energy recovery
(iv) Biological treatment of organic waste
(v) Landfill of final inert waste
Notice that the landfill is still the final destination of final remaining product of any MSW management
method. Instead of regular waste to be filled, the remaining product of MSW is only inert wastes which
produce no odor and require small space. Thus, the life time of landfill can be extended.

2. Promoting the practice of Segregration at source at household level: In 2016, the Centre
for Science and Environment (CSE) came out with a report on Solid Waste Management titled,
“Not in My Backyard: Solid Waste Management in Indian Cities”. It was clear from the report
that cities that are segregating their waste have been able to effectively process and treat it.
While some have achieved the status of zero landfill cities, others are working towards
becoming Zero Waste. With the objective of promoting segregation, CSE, on December 12,
2017, launched a platform called the ‘Forum of Cities that Segregate’. The argument that
segregation is the key for waste management was only strengthened recently with the release
of the Swachh Survekshan 2018 results. Most of the cities in the country that are ensuring
segregation of waste at source have been in the list of the awardees. AND Agra hold the 236th
rank in the 500+ list, which is a very concerning issue.

The aim is to establish and sustain segregation at source and develop capacities of the waste collectors
(formal and informal) to ensure high recycling rates. The source segregation is simple to practice but
requires behavioral change, for which massive awareness campaigns are required.

Some of the examples of the cities who are practicing this in variety of ways are:
(a) Providing incentives in exchange of waste: Indore, the city who topped the Swachh Survekshan
2018 results achieved 100 per cent source segregation not only in households but also in
commercial spaces. Citizens are being encouraged to practice home composting, while more
than 700 temples, market areas, parks, gardens and other bulk generators are treating wet
waste in a decentralised manner.
Residents, who are composting, can sell their home-made compost at a centralised facility at a fixed
rate. All the wet waste in the city is being composted while all the dry waste is being channeled for
recycling. The remaining non-recyclable dry waste is made into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which will be
used when the waste-to-energy plant, which is under construction, is ready. Less than 10 per cent of
the city’s waste now goes to the landfill.
(b) Creating awareness by volunteers: To promote waste segregation among residents, the greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) came out with a plan to bring together citizen
volunteers called ‘Swachhdoots’ who will visit individual households and commercial
establishments to apprise citizens on the practice on segregation. The city has brought together
3,000 swachhdoots who are not only now apprising the citizens but also monitoring segregation
status in the city.
(c) Promoting new campaign to bring people together: Many new programs and campaigns are
initiated by the government alongside private sector and NGOs to create awareness among
people for this issue. A multi-stakeholder Municipal solid waste management program, ‘Alag
Karo Har Din Teen Bin’, in Gurugram was launched this week. The program aims to reach out to
9000 households; 50 commercial establishments such as Offices and Malls; 50 schools and 500
 waste pickers in order to spread awareness about three-way source segregation -dry waste,
wet waste and hazardous waste. ‘Alag Karo’ is a collaborative initiative involving Government,
private sector and civil society members.

Also Another initiative by Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is called the ‘Black bag campaign’,
introduced with an aim of creating awareness and promoting the 3R principle—Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle—for plastic waste. Money made from the sale of recyclable plastic goes towards livelihood
development of the informal sector in the city. Many such campaigns are being executed by different
states and cities.

3. Recycling the construction waste: Construction and demolition, or C&D materials, are the
various waste streams (e.g., wood, metals, concrete, asphalt, gypsum) generated from the
construction, renovation, and demolition of roads, buildings, and bridges. In the United States
alone more than 500 million tons of C&D materials are generated annually. Because so much
C&D waste is produced, it is imperative that recycling processes and repurposing methods are
developed to reduce the amount of debris that ends up in landfills.
C&D waste can include a wide variety of materials, and so there are many methods used for C&D
recycling and various markets that can make use of these recycled products. However, most C&D
recycling processes begin the same way: waste is separated by product type. In some cases, prior to
separation, the waste may be crushed or ground to improve the ease of separation.
These initial recycling steps can either be done at the work site or a resource recovery facility. It is
important to note that the purity of the recovered materials determines the resale price—with purer
products, not surprisingly, fetching a higher price. Thus, material crushing, while simplifying the
separation process, may create a more contaminated (less valuable) recycled material.
Some of the unique ways recycled C&D refuse can be repurposed are:
 Concrete and brick from building demolition can be crushed and used as the base course
layer in road construction. The base course layer of a road improves water drainage, stability,
and abrasion resistance.
 Wood-framed buildings with heavy wood timber (e.g., fir, chestnut, & pine) can often be
deconstructed in such a way that the wood beams can be resold and repurposed as flooring,
molding, doors, or other wooden fixtures such as decorative elements. Wood chips, on the
other hand, can be dyed and used as decorative mulch or used as a bulking agent in biosolid
composting or animal bedding.
 Asphalt pavement can be recycled into hot mix asphalt for road construction and maintenance.
If the shingles are ground to a finer grade, however, they can be used in the mix for the top
layer of paving to reduce paving costs.
 Scrap metals from construction and demolition projects, such as aluminum, copper, and steel,
can be melted down and recycled for many industrial (e.g., plumbing, machinery) and
residential (e.g., fixtures, lighting) uses, as well as packaging materials (e.g., aluminum cans for
foodstuffs).
 Gypsum, a soft sulfate mineral found in drywall, can be recycled using a closed-loop recycling
process. This means that, if handled properly, gypsum products can be recycled repeatedly to
create the same or similar product with (theoretically) no waste.
  In the current scenario, the construction waste is not being treated and usually ends up either
in landfill or sometimes also thrown in the river Yamuna. Thus taking initiatives in this direction
will help in decreasing the load on the already over burdened landfills

4. Treating the segregated waste efficiently: The conservation of our natural resources now-a-
days has been needed to applied enhance efficiency technological approaches for the reducing
waste materials in the place of generating huge amount of waste in Agra city to the production
of different yields as the huge recycled products for human use should be eco-friendly.
In Indore, All the wet waste in the city is being composted while all the dry waste is being
channeled for recycling. The remaining non-recyclable dry waste is made into refuse-derived
fuel (RDF), which will be used when the waste-to-energy plant, which is under construction, is
ready. Less than 10 per cent of the city’s waste now goes to the landfill. The development and
utilizations of various wastes into different forms as a composting biodegradable
heterogeneous organic municipal waste into humified fertilizer, production of methane biogas
by methanogenic bacteria for fuel purposes pyrolysed resultant gases stored by dry waste
incineration in absence of oxygen, substitute of coal designated as RDF(refuse derived fuel) in
the form of pellets without evolving toxic gases specially for poor section of villagers and also
combustible wastes which produces tremendous heat which utilizing for generating electricity
purposes.
Feasibility management system that is suitable for Agra municipality should be an integrated
system between separation system and biological treatment technologies before final disposal
at landfill. Thermal treatment may not be suitable regarding the high moisture content, low
calorific value and also the low management capability of Agra municipality at present.

Recommendation:
 Most of the wastes (about 47%) are organic matters, so it is suitable to dispose the waste either
anaerobic or aerobic by composting so which ever is more suitable may be assessed..
 About 30% of the wastes are recyclable so suitable process for recycling either on small scale or
large scale may be selected.
 Manual Handling of waste should not be practiced.
 Open burning and unscientific waste disposal should be stopped.
 Long term waste management action plan should be designed to cater the city.
 Improvement in the road conditions, width of the road, constructing number of flyovers may
reduce traffic density leading to mitigation of pollutant levels. This is already in progress.
 Making an Agra Green city for which a number of debates are often made on this subject to initiate
action plan.
 Regarding supply of quality water, already the concerned authorities have already taken steps to
supply and clean Yamuna river water to the residents.
 The authorities have implemented various actions for proper discharge of waste, which may
improve the living environment.
 The best way for the solid waste management is the recycling; in our view the best way to manage
the solid waste is recycling and the reuse.
 People should be made aware of collecting the waste in different bins, i.e. organic and recyclable.
The development involves a conceptual system of the solid waste management on GIS platform
including following modules: -

 Optimal Bins Locations

 Waste generation and estimation
 Waste allocations
 Waste collections
 Route optimizations

 There should be a proper Composting and the Land filling site in the city like Agra because this city
is known for its heritage and the tourism and if the city is not clean then the economic condition of
the city is also very badly affected. So for the development of the city we should first consider the
management of the city in detail.

Recommendations for urban areas: The problem of preliminary storage of SW is increasing as the
population is growing rapidly. The old methods of SW management are not correct. SW should be
disposed off after separation into various parts i.e. Biodegradable waste and recyclable waste (i.e.,
plastic, metal, glass, leather) etc.

Transportations: -
 Vehicles must be equipped with compaction mechanism so that large quantity of waste would be
transported.
 It should be well covered during transportation.

Conclusion:
Increasing urbanization and industrialization are bound to increase the amount of waste produces in a
Agra city. Proper management of solid waste by the government organization has not been successful
and is somewhat poor in this urban centre. The amount of uncollected waste is most likely to increase
day-by-day with increasing urbanization. Among the possible scenarios, it is clear that the most two
clear options for efficient solid waste management are either centralized or decentralized. However, to
achieve effective solid waste management, there is a need to systematically analyses through the
strengths and weaknesses of the community as well as the AMC based on which an effective
decentralized system can be evolved with the participation of various stakeholders in Agra city.
Sensitization of the community is also essential to achieve the above objective. The public can be
altered by awareness building campaigns and educational measure . We need act and act fast as the
city is already a hotbed of many contagious diseases most of which are caused by ineffective waste
management. To prevent any epidemic and to make the city a healthy city with economically and
environmentally, there is an urgent need for a well-defined strategic waste management plan and a
strong implementation of same.
References:
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265248895_Solid_Waste_Management_-_Agra_City

http://www.imedpub.com/articles/municipal-solid-waste-management-challenges-and-health-
riskproblematic-solutions-at-agra-city-u-p-india.pdf

https://www.scribd.com/document/252968236/Report-on-solid-waste-management-agra

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bring-paradigm-shift-city-8879/

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https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/waste/divide-and-conquer-segregation-is-the-key-60597