An ecologically balanced system for urban waste disposal

Abstract

Although the manurial value of liquid and solid wastes generated in our cities is immense, municipal authorities have not yet taken advantage of this source. With the increasing shortage of sites for disposal of wastes and the need for conserving certain raw materials and maintaining ecological balance, re-cycling of wastes will be the only viable option in developing countries. An attempt was made in this paper to highlight the manurial value of wastes generated in our cities. The possibility of recycling the urban wastes to keep the ecological balance intact was discussed at length. The present situation in Bangalore (India) with respect to treatment of its urban wastes was illustrated and an integrated scheme for recycling of both liquid and solid wastes was proposed. A system is designed for treating wastes generated by 100,000 people using a modular concept so that it could be repeated in similar modules of 100,000 to keep pace with the growth of towns. A cost analysis of the scheme has shown that it will be a self-paying proposition in about six years.