A Case Study on The Waste Generation and Routes of Disposal of Roadside Small Tea Stalls of Ramgarh Area

Abstract

Tea is a very common beverage that is consumed around the world. Consumption of tea has huge health benefits as it contains a wide spectrum of phytochemicals. Tea is consumed in various forms like black tea, green tea, jasmine tea, etc. India is considered a major producer and exporter of tea in the world. It has been reported in the literature that on average within every two kilometers in India you will find a tea stall. The tea in such stalls is mainly served in plastic cups, paper cups, and earthen cups. Moreover, a gigantic volume of spent tea leaves is generated as a result of the preparation of tea. In context to that, it may be corroborated that, a huge chunk of solid waste is being generated from such small tea shops which in turn has no practical applications. Such wastes also face serious issues related to their storage, management, and disposal. Accordingly, to put an insight into the volume of such tea waste generated; a small case study was conducted as a part of this project. We went to ten different small tea stalls of Ramgarh cantt and carried out a small survey to determine the various amount of waste generated by these shops on a daily basis. The results obtained from the survey were thought-provoking. It was noted that most of these solid wastes were practically not recycled and are simply dumped into various dump yards. Thus, the extended aim of the study was aimed toward the identification of various routes for the valorization of the various wastes generated from these tea stalls in the form of spent tea leaves and various types of containers used for serving the tea. The proposed scheme of work will definitely help in promoting environmental security and accordingly, will be beneficial to the various stakeholders.