Impact of Waste on the Environment in India

Industrialisation is the basic necessity of modern society. India is progressing on the path of development and industrialisation. However, with industrialisation, the production of waste is inevitable.

Megacities are the major contributors to this waste produced in enormous amounts. Anything that is no more useful is discarded and becomes waste. When the waste produced is not treated properly, it poses a threat to our environment – air, water, and land. Inadequate methods to treat waste and dump leads to the harm caused to our environment.

There is an urgent need to understand the impact of waste on the environment and design waste management strategies to protect our environment efficiently. The government needs to focus on waste and its impact on human health and plan a method to discard waste wisely in order to protect people and the environment.

Causes of waste in India

Industrialisation

The major cause of waste production in India is the development of industries. When industries are developed, it causes land pollution, but the running of industries produces tons of waste that, in turn, causes water pollution.

Inadequate waste treatments

Tons of waste is produced in India, and it is not treated properly. India still adopts open dumping and burning as the waste treatment method, which results in pollution. According to a Central Pollution Control Board report published in 2009, only 20% of the waste produced is treated, whereas the rest of the 80% remains untreated.

Household products

Wastes produced from houses are a collection of all types of waste, which include automotive products, skincare products and many more. This causes waste production in tons.

Food wastes

Food that doesn’t seem fit to eat or has expired is termed as food waste. Even though food waste doesn’t seem to be harmful, it does cause various harmful effects on the environment.

Impact of waste on India

• The smoke from the chimneys of the industries emits hazardous amounts of smoke and dust into the air, which leads to air pollution. This polluted air is responsible for various airborne diseases such as asthma.
• The industrial waste dumped in the rivers results in the loss of aquatic life. These wastes form a layer over the river water and cut down the oxygen advancing the sea animals and plants, resulting in the death of these plants and animals. This phenomenon is called Eutrophication.
• Various landfills are created due to the dumping of garbage, and large areas of land are created to make new landfills in order to dump the same. The government should rather utilise the already created landfills and treat waste properly than create new ones.
• Wastes dumped in areas when not treated start smelling, which cause the breeding of mosquitoes. These mosquitoes become the reason for diseases later on.
• Plastic dumped as waste cannot decompose but increases underground pressure, resulting in earthquakes.
• Plastic dumped as waste can also be consumed by animals, resulting in internal injury or deaths of animals.
• Collected wastes lead to the emission of greenhouse gases, which increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, resulting in the heating up of our environment. This has resulted in climate change.
• Improper waste dumping leads to soil contamination. This contaminated soil cannot be used for growing trees. 
• Plastic that is not decomposed releases a harmful chemical called DEHA (DIETHYLHYDROXYLAMINE), which causes immense harm to human health like liver dysfunction, loss of weight and hurt reproductive capabilities of a human.
• When rainfall occurs, it combines with toxic substances in the air and becomes acidic. This acid rain causes harm to marine life as well as humans.

Conclusion

The growth of megacities and overpopulation are obstacles to waste management. It happens in India because of inadequate management systems and improper waste dumping. Another issue is public participation. The public of the country is irresponsible towards its duties of waste management and dumping.

There are several rules set for the management of waste, but they are not followed because of the lack of awareness among the people. Thus, it is quite essential that people are made aware of the harmful effects of dumping waste or burning it so that people actively participate in waste management.

The fundamental 3 Rs should be strictly followed, where the Rs stand for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Recyclable materials should be used in order to reduce the amount of waste produced per year. People should strictly avoid plastic bags, which are extremely harmful to our environment. Until these requirements are met, India will have to suffer from poor waste management.