No Rules For Disposal Of Debris Or Standard For Reuse In Construction
New Delhi: Where do the debris (m a l b a) left after the renovation of your house go? Either it remains near your plot, or is dumped along roads, vacant plots and water bodies. In Delhi, for instance, tons of debris are dumped on the Yamuna floodplains, choking it gradually. If planners decide, the debris from construction can be put to better use, like making new roads, buildings, pavements and even flooring tiles, with some effort.

With a spurt in urbanisation, cities are facing serious environmental consequences due to construction and demolition waste which needs to be recycled and reused, experts said here Monday.

At a seminar "Waste to Resource", experts pointed out ways and means to reuse construction material to build buildings which are sustainable.

India belched over 626 million tones of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in 2013, which is 52 times more than the ministry of environment and forests’ estimate of construction and demolition waste.

The MoEF continues to quote the grossly underestimated figure of 10-12 million tones of waste being generated annually. This is a decade-old estimate given to the ministry in 2000 by the ministry of urban development.

The Delhi Master Plan 2021 should make it mandatory for each zone to have a designated area for waste disposal, said Sunita Narain, Director-General of the Centre for Science and Environment on Monday

Ms. Narain said: “The new Master Plan needs to have an environment service zone so that no zonal plan can be passed on disposal of liquid or solid waste without its approval.”

The National Green Tribunal has sought the response of the Centre and Delhi government on a plea seeking removal of sand and marble shops set up in residential areas of the city in violation of gre