An

Observatory
Report on

University Waste Management

Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya

(A Central University), Sagar
Madhya Pradesh, Pin: 470003
 Acknowledgement

All praise to almighty god who created nature in a cyclic manner, where all mass are
convertible to energy and energy grows the mass. Who suggested there is no waste in the
Universe, we just need to know how to treat them.
It gives us immense pleasure in expressing our sincere gratitude and reverence
towards our honourable Vice-Chancellor madam, Prof. Nilima Gupta, who initiated this holy
and extremely important work for the University. Her sincerity and understanding of the
work and timely advices boosted us to incorporate all the important issues lying with the
University (regarding waste management) in this report.
We express our sincere thanks to all Deans of Schools and Head of the departments
for providing all needed and time bounded support. We are extremely thankful to all wardens
of girls’ hostel (Prof. J.D. Ahi, Prof. Vandana Soni, Dr. Vandana Rajauriya and Dr. Navjot
Kaur Kanwal) and to boys’ hostel (Prof. Rajesh Kumar Gautam, Prof. Utsav Anand, Dr. RP
Singh, Dr. Anil Kumar Kashyap, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Dr. Rakesh Soni and Dr. Ashutosh
Mishra) for providing the necessary data for the preparation of the project report. Special
thanks and gratitude to Mr. Pankaj Tiwari (Director, EMMRC), Mr. Govind Surviah
(photographer) and Mr. Madhav Chandra for their support, in terms of survey of entire
campus and provision of important photographs.
We owe our cordial thanks to all our colleagues especially to Dr. Pushpal Ghosh, Dr.
Milind Deshmukh and Dr. Kalpataru Das, whose suggestion boosted the report in all
manners. We are also thankful to technical and non-technical staffs of the university, whose
support was always there in this work.

- Dr. Niraj Upadhyay and Dr. Vimlesh Chandra

(Nodal Officers, University Waste Management)
 Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1
2 Types of wastes in the campus 2-4
2.1 Waste from the academic departments 2
2.2 Waste from the non-academic departments 3
2.3 Waste from the residential areas: 3
2.4 Waste of public places: 3
2.5 Waste from drainage Water 4
3. Proposed waste management system 4-7
3.1. Source reduction of the waste 4
3.2. Reduction of the wastes 5
3.3. On- site classification of the waste 6
3.4. Manual collection and to fix the responsibility 6
3.5. Site selection for the waste treatment 6
4. Treatment of the wastes 7-9
4.1. Non-biodegradable wastes 7
4.2. Dry but degradable wastes 7
4.3. Electronic wastes 8
4.4. Biodegradable (wet) wastes 8
4.5. Chemical wastes 8
4.6. Biological wastes: 9
5. General requirements (Recurring and non-recurring) 10
6. Conclusion (Important issues and Suggestions) 10-11
1. Introduction
Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya covers an area of 1312.89 acres over patahria hills
connected to the Vindhya Range and surrounded by the forest area (around 100 acres) that
contribute to preserve ecosystem and biodiversity in the campus. The University campus
accommodate 11 Schools containing 36 academic departments, an administrative block,
engineering section, A centre for Indira Gandhi National Open University, Human Resource
Development Centre, Electronic & Multimedia Research Centre, Healthcare and sanitation
department and a sports division. A reasonable area is devoted for the residence of faculties,
staffs and students in the University campus. The campus itself contain around 180 faculty
quarters, 55 staff quarters, four boys’ hostel (residential capacity of around 850 students) and
two girls’ hostel (can accommodate around 600 students).
Due to large number of waste types (chemical, biological, electronic, degradable, non-
degradable etc.), waste management in any University is a challenging task and Dr. Harisingh
Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar is not an exception. Increasing waste generation under
inefficient management systems has become a major challenge in this University and
situation is becoming pathetic day by day. The use of non-biodegradable items especially
single used plastics and produced wastes has drastically increased in last three-four decades.
They captured the market in such a way that their uses seem to be non-replaceable. In
residential areas, the system of storage and transportation of wastes are not available; plastics
and non-degradable wastes are burnt in open areas; departments that generate chemical/ bio-
wastes neither reduce, nor recycle them; electronic wastes are thrown in open areas and many
more challenges are needed to be addressed during making of waste management system of
the University. In addition, the reusable materials (like furniture/ one side used paper etc.)
have become waste due to general avoidance and lack of well trained staffs. Plastics,
concretes, wooden items, dry leaves and cattle dung can be seen many places in the campus.
The University does not have proper connectivity of the wastewater drainage system; their
management is the next steps to be talked off. The university does not have proper storage
system for laboratory waste. Swaksh Bharat Abhiyan was launched in October 2014 with an
objective to bring about improvement in the cleanliness, hygiene and the general quality of
life. In spite of complexity of the problem, University doesn’t have proper policy for the
waste management. At present, University does not have any method of collection, storage,
transportation and treatment methods of the waste.

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This report will provide the basic information about waste available in the University and
their possible proper treatment. It helps us understanding the nature of the waste and action to
manage those wastes. This report will fulfil the following objectives:

§ To identify and classify the waste

§ To segregate recyclable and reusable materials
§ To reduce the waste
§ To strategize collection and transportation of the waste
§ To suggest possible treatment methods

2. Types of wastes in the campus: Due to different nature of the departments, centres,
residential areas the types of waste generation are different and can be divided in four parts:
2.1 Waste from the academic departments: Among the different Departments, paper
wastes, furniture and electronic wastes (Computers, printers etc.) are common. In lack of
proper management, many reusable materials are thrown or stored as waste. The process of
absolution has not been followed from many years. The unknown wastes are pile up in the
rooms occupying the sitting places from long time and are considered a hazardous material
until it is properly identified. The undergraduate, postgraduate and research laboratory are
generating chemical and biological wastes. There is no clear policy framed by the University
for recycling/discarding of these wastes by responsible person. Therefore, malpractices like
discarding chemicals in water medium and throwing bottles carrying chemicals in open area
is going on.

Figure 1: Chemical waste Figure 2: waste Furniture

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2.2 Waste from the non-academic departments: There are many supporting centres in the
University, like University administrative block, Engineering section, Guest House,
University Central Library, University Health Centre, Remedial Coaching Centre, Sports
section, post office, two banks (State Bank of India and Central Bank of India), Indian Coffee
House, SwarnaJayanti Auditorium, KendriyaVidyalaya, Electronic & Multimedia Research
Centre, shopping complex etc. From most of these places only dry and wet wastes are found
except from University Health Centre and from Electronic & Multimedia Research Centre.
Because of the nature of the work, hospital generates some biowastes, which is not an issue
of waste management for the University, as these bio wastes are collected from Sagar
Medical College daily and are finally incinerated. Similarly, Electronic & Multimedia
Research Centre produces electronic wastes, which is stored in rooms, waiting for absolution
and may emit toxic gases when are stored for long time.

2.3 Waste from the residential areas: At present, Dr. Harisingh Gour University does not
have any resource to collect and transport the waste and there is no specified location for the
waste disposal. Majority of residents dump their biodegradable waste and non-biodegradable
waste in dustbins which is ultimately thrown in the open fields or burnt. Food waste is
thrown on the road to feed cattle roaming in the campus. Cattle dung can be seen across the
campus. Accumulation of waste at open spaces, street sides/drains are leading to
environmental pollution. Unhygienic conditions prevailing in the area may lead to various
health and sanitation related diseases.

Figure 3: Non degradable waste in residential areas

2.4 Waste of public places: All the public places, like canteens, shopping centres etc.
generally generate wet and dry wastes for which methods of collection and treatment should
be same as stated above.

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2.5 Waste from drainage Water: At present, there is no drainage system available in the
campus. All the households release waste water in the gardens. Due to flow of waste water
into public areas, it has become a major source of bad odour, disease in the campus. Thus,
there is an urgent need to bring in the improved, efficient and sustainable waste management
system for clean and green campus as well as there is need to connect all the houses to the
drainage and waste water management system.
3. Proposed waste management system: By definition, wastes are those materials that are
not needed by the owner, producer and processor. In all processes of production and
consumption, wastes are produced. But the apparent waste generated from one system may
become an input to another system. It is the exponential growth in human consumption that
increased the quantity of the wastes, and their consumption in that speed is becoming difficult
day by day. After generation of the wastes, their management is based on three ‘R’s: Reduce
recycle and reuse. To reduce the wastes we want to incorporate the fourth R here that is
repair. University must need a work shop that may contain furniture repairing/ preparing
section, Glass blowing section, e-repairing centre etc.

Figure 4: Scheme of the sustainable waste management

3.1. Source reduction of the waste: Any process of production or consumption generates
waste. Getting waste itself is not a big problem, but the problem aggravate by greater quantity
and faster generation of the waste than their recycling processes. It is therefore, before
managing the waste; we should first try to reduce the waste. We recommend optimum
utilization of the material bought for the University management processes. As an example, a

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common waste that is generated from almost all the departments is the paper waste. Though,
we strongly feel paper should not come under waste category and we should take all the
necessary steps to maximize their utility and minimize waste generation by them. In this
quest we recommend to reduce/ minimize paper wastes by strengthening the IUMS and web
portal of the University. Copy of a notice, created for a single person is circulated many fold
for putting those on record. We recommend a full-fledge system of e-files and e-notices.
Also, we recommend accepting and appreciating use of one-side used papers for official
purposes. At the end point of their maximum utilization, they may be collected once in a
month from entire campus, recycled and reused for the University official purposes.
In a similar way single use plastic wastes can be reduced by designing a carry bag of
carrying capacity of at least 40 Kg, which may itself contain three carry bags of 5 kg
capacity, five carry bags of two kg capacity and 8-10 carry bags of one kg capacity. Their
optimum utilization can be reached by involving and educating the stake holders by slogans,
nukkad natak etc. Chemical wastes can be reduced by minimizing amount of chemicals used
for performing experiments in UG and PG labs. In the same line, generation of other wastes
may also be reduced.
3.2 Reduction of the waste: It is our strong opinion that waste generated from on site may be
an important input or resource for the other site. So, wherever possible, we should reduce the
waste by optimizing the waste. The important wastes should be placed on website through a
link, if somebody needs that they may be allowed to take and reuse those. All the repairable
items should be repaired and reused. For example, batteries from electronic waste may be a
potential tool for further research in the said area. Therefore, the waste batteries can be
allowed to provide to scholars of Physics department for any further innovation or possibility
of reusability of those (if demanded). Sometime printers and computers are repairable. Only
those electronic waste should be discarded whose technology is out of the date and should be
sent directly to the companies which recycle these wastes. Similarly, paper should be used till
its maximum usability and after that should be recycled and reused.
Repairing: There are many usable items in the University, which in absence of repairing or
recycling looks waste. For example most of the wooden waste, which at present have taken
lots of space in the University Engineering section and also in various Departments, are
repairable and reusable. All the furniture demands of the University can be taken care from
those unused wooden materials. Also the produced furniture form these woods are repairable
in nature. By this way, University will not only minimize the waste but also may reduce the
expenditure in bringing up the new furniture and will provide job to the local community.

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3.3 On-site classification of the waste: Different types of wastes have different treatment
methods. It is always better to segregate the waste at the site of waste generation. People
should educate to come out from their comfort zone and put different wastes (biodegradable/
non-biodegradable/ chemical/ biological/ electronic wastes) in different containers.
3.4 Manual collection and to fix the responsibility: University should manage the
segregation, collection and transportation of the waste. Their regular monitoring is also
importatn. Two different types of the wastes should not be mixed in any circumstances. The
person collecting the waste should allow denying collection of the waste, if not segregated or
properly classified. The van collecting wastes should have two partitions i.e. for the wet
degradable waste and for the dry non-biodegradable wastes. Throwing or burning the wastes
in open area should be a punishable act.
There should be routine transport of the wastes from the waste generation site to waste
treatment plant. Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste should be collected every day;
chemical wastes and glass wastes should be collected once in a week; electronic and paper
wastes should be collected once in a month and transported to the treatment plants. For
collection of biological waste an incinerator uses to come every morning from Sagar Medical
College. We recommend continuing the process.
3.5. Site selection for the waste treatment: Waste treatment itself is a huge, challenging and
cost demanding process. We recommend treatment of only those wastes, which are coming
out in large excess to make the treatment process cost efficient and may produce usable items
for the University at the end of the process. To the best of our opinion, treating degradable
and chemical wastes in the campus is beneficial. Wherever possible, strategy of reusing waste
in academic and research purposes should be done. Otherwise, non-biodegradable and
electronic wastes should be directly sent to the concerned industry. For collecting bio-waste,
an incinerator uses to come every morning in all the working days from Sagar Medical
College. We recommend continuing the process. A chemical waste treatment plant can be
installed right behind the Chemistry Department. Infrastructural and staff support should be
provided for that.
Wet biodegradable wastes can be collected in two different locations of the University
keeping a distance of a minimum of 250 meters from the population area. We suggest the
collection areas around Boys’ hostel and around Girls’ hostel so that the produced gas can be
transported to the hostel canteen/ hostel mess.
With high population in India, waste management is becoming a tedious task. For the
process, management and monitoring demands dedicated staff and section. So, we

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recommend starting a fresh department/section on waste management under School of
Chemical Science and Technology or may act as sister division of Environmental Science
Department (yet to start).
4. Treatment of the wastes: Before treatment of the waste all the repairable and reusable
materials should be removed. Now different types of waste will be treated differently that we
are discussing one by one.
4.1. Non-biodegradable wastes: We received a proposal from alumni of this University,
who wants to take all the transparent wastes like, plastic bottles, glass bottles etc. Though, we
recommend restarting a glass blowing section in the University sophisticated instrumentation
Centre. All remaining non-biodegradable waste can be send to the plastic/ glass industry that
has the capacity to recycle them.
4.2. Dry but degradable wastes: There are many wastes which are dry and degradable in
nature, like paper, wooden furniture, cartoons, jut ropes etc. Extents of some of such wastes
are that much that it is always beneficial to repair/ recycle and reuse them. For example,
paper that may come out as waste in our University is large enough that their recycling and
reusability will be a better and cheaper source than purchasing paper rims for University
academic divisions or answer scripts for examination. It’s better to recycle such wastes either
by making University own plant or by sending them to the industry which is involved in
recycling of such wastes. Much wooden furniture can be seen near engineering section and in
many other departments. All those furniture can be easily repaired and reused.

Figure 5: Dry and reusable items, need repairing

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4.3. Electronic/ e-wastes: Electronic wastes should be minimized before starting of their
treatment. Many such wastes are repairable and reusable. We recommend putting list of such
waste on IUMS to see whether somebody may repair or reuse them. University may also
open a centre for repairing of electronic items like for computers, printers, photocopier on
outsource and on payment basis. We received an application from alumni of Physics
Department (Mr. Jitendra Baghel), who is promising to convert the battery from AC to DC
and may provide clean and eco friendly light for 24 hour utilization in University campus
without taking any money from the University. This may act as a pilot project for his
innovation. Finally, the electronic material that remain unutilized and that cannot be recycled
or reused by University officials may be sent or sold to the industries which recycles these
wastes.
4.4. Biodegradable (wet) wastes: Food wastes, cow dung etc. or any biodegradable items are
coming in this category. All these collected and transported wastes can be used to make
biogases and the wastes generated after that should be used to make good quality compost.
The cost and dimension of the biogas plant can only be planned after getting exact data of
wet wastes (University was running under online mode since last two years and therefore, the
average amount of wet waste coming out is unavailable). Also, a good thing of our University
is its natural beauty and greenness. Because of this a large number of leaf wastes are
generated which can be used in making leaf compost.
4.5. Chemical wastes: Chemical wastes are defined as any waste that is generated by any
reagent grade chemicals or product/ side product generated (unused or side product) from
educational and experimental processes, chemicals inside batteries, household chemicals
(like, oil, pesticides, finally divided powders, paint, dyes and resins, LEDs etc.) or anything
contaminated by the chemicals. At present, University doesn’t have any fixed protocol to use
and manage chemical wastes. Also, there are many huddles in implementing chemical waste
management, like laboratory staffs and to the some extent students and research scholars are
not properly trend for environmental and human hazard by chemical wastes and importance
of their management. We are therefore suggesting here the general protocols that should be
followed for treatment of such wastes.
Chemical waste can be divided into two parts: hazardous and non-hazardous and both can be
further subdivided into solid, liquid and gas wastes. In all the laboratories there should be a
regular practice to ensure the nature of chemicals by reading there MSDS (Material Safety
Data Sheet), which is easily available on web portals. We should ensure maximum utilization
of chemicals and apparatus. All the stores and laboratories should provide list of chemicals/

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equipments, which are not in use or possibilities of their uses are minimum. They should be
shared across the department and the University should ensure their maximum usability.
The chemical waste generation depends on the amount and type of input chemicals
we use. All the chemicals cannot be recycled or reused. So, there should be a practice to use
minimum possible number and amount of chemicals. All the organic solvent should be tried
to be reused after distillation (either in chemical reactions or in cleaning of the apparatus). If
laboratory is not able to reuse those chemicals, they should be stored in a sealed high quality
LDPE container. User should try not to mix many chemicals in a single container (and level
the chemicals stored in the container). Most of the liquid chemicals used in our lab are
compatible or non-reactive with LDPE container except carbon disulphide, nitrobenzene and
thionyl chloride. The container should have 53B or 83B screw cap. Before disposal the
chemicals in soil, to the possibility of maximum extent the chemicals should be converted to
less toxic or non-hazardous. For examples cyanide is a potential poison, we can neither allow
them to mix in soil or in water. But, by reacting them with Fe3+, they can be converted into
non-toxic ferriferrocyanide complex. Some of the liquid wastes like organic solvents can be
recycled by fraction distillation and the chemicals that are non-recyclable should be disposed
off in soil after packing them in a triple layered LDPE container to avoid any type of leaking.
Nature of these types of jobs is cyclic and need trend staffs. This again indicate requirement
of an independent department of waste management.
4.6. Biological wastes: Biological wastes coming out from University Health Center,
Department of Zoology, and Department of microbiology are sent to the Sagar Medical
College daily and are finally incinerated.

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5. General requirements:

S. N. Particulars Quantity

Solid Waste Management

1. Construction of waste collection centre 3
2 Construction of biogas plant 2
3 No. of dustbins
3.1 Centre for collection of wastes (of 5 ton capacity) 03 (For dry wastes,
electronic wastes
and Green wastes)
3.2 Dustbins for offices green colour (20 litres) 400
3.3 Dustbins for offices red colour (20 litres) 50
3.4 Dustbins for offices blue colour (20 litres) 400
4. Materials and instruments needed for solid waste
management
4.1 Kit for Workers: Uniforms, safety equipment; hand 8
gloves, canvas shoes, first aid kits etc.
4.2 Tools required (Shovels, 2 set
Brooms etc.)
4.3 Packing materials for a year recyclable garbage 200
polybag
4.4 Waste Collection green Vehicles 2
(Battery operated vehicles)
5 Other Activities, such as
Landscaping and
Beautification
Sub Total for Solid Waste Management
5. Materials and instruments needed for Liquid waste
management
5.1 Connecting drainage and pipelines of individual To be confirmed
building to main drainage of sagar municipality
5.2 Laboratory liquid waste treatment plant (Fractional Yet to be confirmed
distillation assembly, detoxification Centre,
disposable container)

6. Conclusion:
Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar contain 36 different academic departments, 15
supporting sections and large number of students (more than 8000) that generate wastes in
huge amount and of different types (due to different nature of the work). In this quest
University needs a separate and strong waste management section as well as policy. At
present University doesn’t have any system of on-site segregation, collection and
transportation of wastes to a common storage and treatment place. The University does not
have proper connectivity of the wastewater drainage system that must be established without

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any delay. There is no clear policy for the management of chemical and electronic wastes.
Many items are stored for long time and are waiting for absolution, which do not only occupy
space of the University, but also may generate toxic gases. The use of non-biodegradable
items especially single used plastics and produced wastes has drastically increased in last
three-four decades. They are either burnt or are thrown in open spaces. We must need to
control the situation by providing the alternative(s). The amount of generated wastes should
be reduced, by optimization of the waste and therefore University must need a full fledge
workshop that can repair wooden, electronic and glass items. IUMS system should be
strengthened and the University should now move towards paperless culture in its
governance. Also, single side used paper for all official purposes should be welcomed. The
IUMS system can also help in minimizing the waste by increasing number of probable users.
List of usable items may be placed on the IUMS and faculties/ staffs/ students can take those
in no cost. The finally obtained non-reducible wastes should be sent for the proper treatment.
Certainly, treatment of all types of the wastes by the University is not feasible. We
recommend treatment of green wastes and chemical wastes. The wet/ green wastes can be
utilized in production of biogas using a biogas plant. Cost of chemical treatment plant is large
enough and therefore we first recommend fractional distillation of organic solvents and
detoxification of hazardous chemicals. E-wastes and non-biodegradable wastes should be
directly sent in regular intervals to the companies who treat these wastes. Biological wastes
(coming out from University Health Center, Department of Zoology, and Department of
microbiology) are collected from Sagar Medical College daily and are finally incinerated. We
recommend continuing the process. Due to the recurring nature of the job and looking on to
demand of the society, we strongly recommend opening of a dedicated department/section on
waste management.

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