2020.3: JR Sumana and Lewlyn LR Rodrigues, Solid Waste Disposal Habits of Urban India: Behavior Change or Changing Behavior?
“I used to go on walks everyday with my neighbors in our neighborhood. The streets were beautiful and filled with trees and other lush greenery. We would hear the soulful chirping of birds and the misty mornings boosted our energy for the whole day. Children would especially wait for summers as the streets were carpeted with gulmohar (royal poinciana) flowers,” Shalini, a 60-year-old co-passenger from Bengaluru, a southern Indian state, said to me during our trip from Bengaluru to the North eastern state of Sikkim. “But now, we see garbage at almost every street corner. My friend’s house sits opposite a vacant plot and people dump so much trash that the site has become a mini dumping ground, giving off a foul smell and is full of mosquitoes. Our once posh neighborhood was welcoming for everyone, but now the gulmohar flowers are replaced with plastic trash, cans, bottles, paper, and stray dogs that dig through all of it looking for their share of food. Although, some friends argue that globalization is a boon to the modern world, it is a bane to India where a lack of effective infrastructure has made our lives difficult. Bengaluru, once a garden city has become a garbage city.” Shalini’s expressions showed her anger and frustration, but directed to a vital concern – better management of solid waste.
In the past few decades, India has seen a tremendous increase in solid waste due to technological advancement, urbanization, and economic growth. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that by 2047, solid waste in India will reach 300 million tons, requiring 169.6 square kilometers, more than eight times the amount of land used for solid waste disposal used in 1997.[1] Solid waste is corrosive, toxic, and flammable.[2] It clogs drains, harms soil and greenery, and contributes to the development and spread of diseases, overconsumption of resources, methane formation, and climate change. To mitigate these issues, the government of India has initiated the Clean India Mission (Swach Bharath Abhiyan), Go Green, Plastic-Free, and Zero Waste campaigns, along with other administrative measures. Yet while statutory bodies are planning and implementing strategies to build a sustainable system, mountains of garbage are constantly visible in public places.
As industries have developed in urban centers in India, solid waste disposal habits have been changing due to population growth.[3] Since waste is generated due to human needs and desires, the production and disposal of waste does not exist in a social vacuum.[4] It is in this context that we have explored waste generation and disposal in Udupi district, located along the coast of Karnataka state. We have found that waste disposal behavior is entangled within existing social structures.[5]
In interviews with residents we explored disposal and recycling habits along socioeconomic lines. Radha, a housewife in a wealthy family, explained:
It is a Hindu tradition to buy new clothes and wear them for Diwali [the festival of lights]. As kids we used to wait for those days because we wore old clothes all year long. But now, buying new clothes is not a celebration. My daughter buys dresses in bulk and if her friends or relatives say that the clothes look unattractive, she will not wear them again. She does not allow me to donate the cloth[6]es to others, either. Last monsoon, all of her clothes needed to be discarded due to a fungus attack and even now, she keeps buying clothes and does not sort them to discard or donate. Recently, my husband bought some expensive traditional clothing for both of us to wear for the Navaratri and when I tried to stop him he said that he wants to buy them as a celebration for the festival season, although buying new clothes for Navaratri is not a custom in our community.
Sonali, an upper-class software professional, told us:
It is a community tradition to share sweets during Navaratri and hence I cannot resist buying kilos of sweets during festival season. But often I forget or miss the chance to distribute them during the festival due to my hectic working hours and the long drive it takes to reach my relatives’ and friends’ houses. I have ended up discarding the sweets into the trash several times, though I know it is wrong.
On the other hand, Anupama, a middle-aged and middle-class woman, explained:
I always ensure that my torn sarees are used in a variety of ways. I use them as blankets, dining table covers, sofa covers, baby dresses, and pillow covers. I don’t want to discard or donate them because I have received them as gifts for important festivals from my parents, husband, and in-laws and I hold them in high sentimental and traditional value. I have even converted plastic bottles and old buckets into pots as gifts for many of my friends as I feel morally obligated to do my bit.
Jaypal, a lower-class slum resident and a dobhi, told us:
I am from a village and it was my dream to live in a city. I earn my wages on a daily basis and I buy groceries on a day to day basis as well. Since my family and I have no refrigerator, we discard leftover food almost every day and how does it matter if we discard the food in drains by the roadside? Anyway, municipal authorities are responsible for waste.
These examples illustrate that solid waste is not just material that is produced, consumed, and discarded; it is related to socio-cultural, socio-psychological, and socio-economic factors such as class context within a broader social structure. It is also evident that people seek to balance cultural beliefs, traditions, values, and lifestyle demands in a way that has changed from an emphasis on saving and scarcity to an emphasis on consumption.
What is interesting is that the people we interviewed are aware of solid waste management issues. In a reply to an open-ended question, an engineering student wrote:
Ideally, climate change and the consciousness around it have sought me to modify life habits to keep our environment safe. And amongst a list of things to do, like not littering, reducing the use of plastic, promoting planting green plants at home and in public spaces, waste management is also on the checklist. Afroz Shah, who single handedly cleaned Versova Beach, was a great inspiration, especially because it proved to me that one man's action can change the world. But yet, my lack of perseverance/laziness to fight back has pushed me into inaction with no incentive whatsoever from either the community or family to be more environmentally friendly.
Anthropological and psychological factors go hand in hand with political processes and act as facilitators or barriers for promoting more sustainable solid waste management activities. From a broader perspective our goal is to emphasize the daily behaviors that people from different social classes take part in that degrade the environment and how we all experience our local environments. It is in this context that we are trying to understand what precedes decisions people make about solid waste management in areas of rapid urbanization.
JR Sumana is a research scholar in the Humanities and Management Department, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
Lewlyn Lester Raj Rodrigues is a professor in the Humanities and Management Department, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education Manipal, India.
References:
[1] Pappu, A., Saxena, M., & Asolekar, S. R. (2007). “Solid wastes generation in India and their recycling potential in building materials.” Building and Environment 42 (6), 2311-2320.
[2] Alam, P., & Ahmade, K. (2013). “Impact of solid waste on health and the environment.” International Journal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics 2 (1), 165-168; Inglezakis, V. J., & Moustakas, K. (2015). “Household hazardous waste management: a review.” Journal of Environmental Management 150, 310-321.
[3] Kumar, V., & Pandit, R. K. (2013). “Problems of solid waste management in Indian cities.” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 3 (3), 1-9.
[4] Stern PC. 2000. “New environmental theories: toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior.” Journal of Social Issues 56 (3): 407-424.
[5] Practice-ing behaviour change: Applying social practice theory to pro-environmental behaviour change. Journal of consumer culture, 11(1), 79-99.
[6] This is a nine day festival in autumn to worship the goddess Durga.