Delhi announces slew of SWM measures

Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar has directed Delhi’s urban local bodies to shut down all dhalaos in the city and replace them with material recovery facilities (MRFs) by December 2024 to ensure proper waste segregation. The directive also aims to achieve 100% waste segregation at source in all 272 wards in Delhi by the same deadline. MRFs will be used to temporarily store non-combustible solid waste for sorting purposes. Presently, Delhi generates 11,328 TPD of waste daily, of which only around 7,802 TPD is processed. To address this, new waste-to-energy plants will be established, and existing facilities will be expanded. A website or portal will be created to record daily waste generation, collection, recycling, and processing, and third-party audits will be conducted by the three local bodies.

The closure of dhalaos is due to increased mechanization of the garbage collection process, with mechanical mobile and fixed garbage compactors reducing the volume of garbage.