Garbage, art, and some anarchy

13/6/2014

It was a sunny morning. We were dragged out of our beds and made to spruce up. After having a hot breakfast that woke up our senses, we left for the Shiwalik Solid Waste Management facility in Majra, 10 kilometres away from Nalagarh, which manages industrial hazardous wastes from the whole of Himachal Pradesh.

On our arrival at the facility, we were received with the customary water and Himachali namkeen with which we were well acquainted by then. We were briefed about the facility, managed by United Phosphorous limited, by two advisors of the company, one of whom was a retired state pollution control board chairperson. The facility, we were told, has a total capacity of 10 lakh metric tonnes, and receives hazardous wastes from different parts of Himachal Pradesh, which are later landfilled there.

To prevent the "leachate" or what we call it as the "dirty percolating water" from polluting the ground water, they use an extravagant liner system. The process of landfilling starts with the segregation of wastes and their stabilisation by mixing it with additives like cement, lime etc. This mixture of wastes and concrete are then spread inside the landfills and covered with soil. Such cells of waste are successively laid on one another, eventually covering the entire landfill.

After the capacity of the landfill is saturated, a final soil cover is laid and liners are placed on top to seal the landfill completely. Trees and plants are grown on the landfill to make it aesthetically appealing. The leachate is also collected from the bottom and treated. The treated leachate is used to water the plants on the site.

of all that was said, what appealed to me the most was that apart from treating the wastes, it was also used up in creating sculptures, which seemed very interesting and innovative, of which they had a display at the entrance of the facility. We also had a gruelling round of interjection with the advisors, where anarchy prevailed (Mitali-wink ).

It was a tiring and knowledgeable experience overall. We bid adieu to the facility and set out for The Great Himalayan National Park, which had quite a lot more in store for us.