Centre for Science and Environment

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1980, CSE works as a think tank on environment-development issues in India, Poor planning, climate shifts devastating India's natural habitats and advocates for policy changes and better implementation of the already existing policies. CSE uses knowledge-based activism to create awareness about problems and propose sustainable solutions.

In an interview with Built Constructions, Ms. Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE highlights the urgent need of addressing C&D waste and the importance of C&D waste recycling.

Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste is a foremost concern to the environment in India as there is a lacuna in handling construction debris and demolition debris.  This has a massive impact on the environment and has led to a criminal wastage of natural resources. There is no updated official estimate on quantum of C&D waste being currently generated in India. According to CSE, it is estimated that in 2013 more than 530 million tonnes of it was generated by the building sector. And this is the case when almost 60 per cent of the building stock in India is yet to come up. Putting reality in perspective, not just from an environmental point of view, if the issue of C&D waste is not addressed right away it can also seriously impede our housing and urbanisation drive by escalating the building material crisis and the need for landfills among others.

Says Ms. Narain, "Nowadays when I see a building, I think of a river. We are hollowing out our rivers to get sand to construct and then we are choking them with the waste from demolition and inefficient construction practices. In short, C&D waste is killing our rivers, which are already in a precarious condition, two times over."

C&D Waste Back into Buildings

Recycling C&D waste back into building material is certainly the best way of dealing with it but the majority of stakeholders in India are doing their best to ignore the issue. Generators of C&D waste are mostly unaware about its recycling potential. Private real estate developers in Gurgaon have been caught dumping it on eco-sensitive Aravalli hills, while mega government infrastructure projects like Delhi Metro have been reprimanded by National Green Tribunal (NGT) for dumping C&D waste on the Yamuna flood plains. Small builders are routinely seen throwing away their bit of the waste on roads and footpaths, highly compromising road safety and access. At the policy front there are no mandatory guidelines or rules that govern handling and management of C&D waste. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMDRA) had made rules to manage it in 2005 but it's very poorly implemented and the city's sole recycling facility stopped working in 2012. Municipal Corporation of Delhi did set up a recycling plant in 2009 to handle the bulk waste that was generated in preparing for Commonwealth Games 2010 but the plant is running into financial losses as there is very little policy or market support.

Proper Construction Management

The first thing to do is to reduce C&D waste generation via proper construction management in the case of new constructions. Then there is the issue of skilful dismantling instead of demolition of obsolete structures.  This optimisation of the resource should then be complemented through recycling. But as of now there is just one functional C&D waste recycling plant in the country which already has 53 urban agglomerations with a million plus population and grand plans of making 100 new smart cities.

CSE's Initiative to Encourage Recycled Material in Construction

There is a taboo in using C&D waste recycled materials in building constructions.  "The taboo is there mostly because there is a wide spread misconception that Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) forbids the use of recycled material in construction. Though BIS has clarified that it allows recycled waste to be used in construction under various clauses of the National Building Code of India (NBC) but the misconception still reins strong as there is lack of built pilot projects in the country to showcase suitability of recycled waste as building material," adds Ms. Narain.

CSE's research and active advocacy has resulted in BIS setting up committee to revise the Indian standard for aggregate (sand and gravel) to include recycled C&D waste as legitimate building material. She says, "This move will clear all the air regarding its suitability as building material and pave way for major government agencies like Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to take up use of recycled C&D waste. It has been noticed once CPWD recognises and starts using a new material, all the other players follow the suit. This is precisely how fly ash bricks became mainstream; we can expect the same result with recycled C&D waste."

Demolition Waste Exceeds New Construction Debris

Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has provided thumb rules for calculating C&D waste generation. Demolition produces 10 times the quantity of C&D waste compared to new construction according to TIFAC. New construction according to the TIFAC thumb rule generates 30-50 kg of waste for every square metre of built area, while demolition generates 300-500 kg of waste for every square metre demolished. 

Policies Yet to be Outlined

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) issued an advisory to all State Governments on October 31, 2013 stating that the C&D waste can be beneficially used by proper processing and recycling to suffice for raw material which is increasingly becoming a scarce resource in many states. The previous government had also initiated process to formulate rules C&D Waste Rules in line with Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 rules but we have heard nothing about them since new the government took charge. The ministry told the Parliament last December that MSW management including management of C&D Waste is a State subject, and the centre just acts as a facilitator in framing broad policies, programmes and guidelines. But ironically MSW rules or its 2013 draft revision which mandate and guides civic bodies to manage and recycle municipal solid waste treats C&D waste as exception and outside its mandate.

"Further states, so far, have no specific law on this, leaving civic authorities clueless. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) launched on October 2, 2014 has solid waste management as one of the components but we have not seen any further action on C&D waste management so far," she states.

Role of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)

The current government has indicated that recycling of C&D waste might solely be ULBs responsibility. But there has been no mandate or policy guidance given to ULBs. The manual on solid waste management developed by the MoUD offers a basic guideline on handling C&D waste that is not binding on developers, government development agencies or ULBs.  Therefore we have found initiatives on this in very few ULBs. Mumbai and Pune have local rules on management and handling of the C&D waste but implementation is almost non-existent. Delhi is the only city which has a functional C&D waste recycling unit which was established to deal with mega waste generated in preparation for Commonwealth Games of 2010.

Gurgaon has recently signed agreement with a private agency to set up a recycling plant after local groups filed a Public-Interest Litigation (PIL) in NGT.  Recycling plants need scaling up and have to happen as part of the development of the city's basic infrastructure and not as a reaction to crises as it is happening in Delhi and Gurgaon. All municipalities need to build recycling units and back them up with systems and mechanisms of collection and transportation of C&D waste to the recyclers. Further it needs to be made mandatory for big developers and construction agencies which generate waste in bulk to incorporate C&D waste recycling and utilisation as part of the project itself and implement it on site.

"C&D Waste generation and recycling gained traction when Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) for National Capital Region (NCR) took note of the problem and asked CSE to investigate the issue in 2013. Detailed research and active advocacy by CSE has been instrumental in pushing BIS to take up revision of standards for aggregates to include recycled waste as possible substitution for natural sand and gravel," she informs. CSE has been contributing to the standards amendment process as an invitee to the panel and are hopeful that amendments will come into force this year itself. It is also providing technical and research support to local groups to take up the issue with their respective ULBs or with courts. We are further working on providing training and building capacity of regulators to properly handle and manage C&D Waste, in addition to our ongoing public knowledge building efforts via workshops and support to media in reportage.

"We are on track as far as standards are concerned but now we need to fix our construction practices and city infrastructure to facilitate proper managing and handling of this waste cum resource. We also need municipal governance to influence market dynamics so as to make recycling sustainable economically.  Hong Kong has a very good policy which incentivises reduction and on-site recycling of C&D waste which India can learn from. Developers are charged a tax for generating the waste and the tax rate is lower if the actual waste generated is less than 25% of what was estimated at design stage. This encourages builders to reduce their waste footprint. The money collected from this tax is used to subsidise the operation of C&D waste recycling units which lowers the production cost of products made of recycled waste. This has helped make recycling a profitable business and stringent quality standards have ensured safety and reliability. Recycled material such as copper slag and construction waste is widely used in other parts of the world for aggregates. Even we need to realise this and have to change. Otherwise there will be no rivers but sand, only sand," she adds.

Profile of Ms. Sunita Narain, Director-General, CSE

Sunita Narain is a noted environmentalist, writer and opinion leader. She is currently the director- general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) where she has been since 1982. She is also the director of the Society for Environmental Communications and publisher of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth (DTE). She is renowned for conducting her research with forensic rigor combined with passion, so that knowledge can lead to change.