Since sustainable and scientific waste management has been ignored for a long time, more and more waste from cities is ending up in Indian dumps. Several of the older landfills still have a hazardous legacy. India is trying to make a more scientific and long-lasting system for managing solid waste based on the ideas of decentralization and the circular economy. However, it can’t let old garbage get in the way of its progress.
This webinar of the month talks about how managing legacy waste through landfill mining or bio-mining can create unique problems, but it can also create technology-based ways to turn dumpsites into cash and valuable land.

SPEAKERS

Swati Singh Sambyal @UN-Habitat, India

Swati Singh Sambyal is a renowned researcher on resource management and circular economy. Swati has worked in India as well as across the Global South on development issues concerning integrated waste and resource management. She has been a part of the National Geographic forum on the circular economy. She is presently associated as a waste management specialist with the UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (ROAP) leading projects and interventions in India on frontier technologies for circular economy of plastics, evidence based MSW planning and Fukuoka Landfill Remediation. Prior to UN-Habitat, she was head of the waste management programme at New Delhi-based environment policy and advocacy organisation, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), for 9 years. She has also done short-term consultancy assignments with UNEP India Office and World Bank. She has been acknowledged by NatGeo as one of the global experts on circular economy.She has been involved in the development and execution of a variety of development, research and training projects and programmes, is a regular public speaker at national and international forums and has several publications to her credit.

Dr Manoj Datta @IIT-Delhi

Dr. Manoj Datta is currently Emeritus Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Delhi where he has been teaching and conducting research since 1980. He has held the positions of Head of Civil Engineering Department and Dean (Alumni Affairs & International Programmes) at IIT Delhi and Director Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. He has edited three books in the areas of landfills, solid waste management and ash ponds. He has published over 160 papers in journals and conferences. 

Prof. Datta has been consultant to over 150 projects in the areas of geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering. He has been involved in planning design, construction and remediation of over two dozen HW & MSW Landfills and contaminated waste disposal sites in India. He has been associated with the Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as Ministry of Urban Development in framing of guidelines and design manuals for Municipal Solid Waste landfills and Hazardous Waste landfills.

Sanjiv Kumar Singh @ReSustainability

Sanjiv Kumar possesses 25+ years of work experience in Environmental Sustainability, Circular Economy, and Waste Management. He is currently heading the Strategic Growth and Transformation division of ReSustainability Limited (formerly known as Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited), a KKR-backed company. The company is Asia’s leading waste management company and is responsible for the Transformation of the Waste Management Space in India through Policy Advocacy. He works closely with Policy Makers, Executors, Industry, Corporate houses, and NGOs in conceptualizing projects, enabling execution with a focus on Circular economy and sustainability.

Prior to this, Mr. Sanjiv was Heading the Industrial Waste and Biomedical Waste Management Division which is the largest and crucial division of Re Sustainability Ltd. He has successfully handled that challenging role driving the business to new horizons with circularity and sustainability as the focus. He was instrumental in permitting, establishing, and successfully operating many numbers of Municipal Solid Waste projects, Biomedical waste facilities, Hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities, Effluent Treatment Plants, and Recycling Units in Re Sustainability Ltd. He has to his credit the conceptualizing, permitting, establishing, and operating the largest Municipal waste treatment facility situated in Narela, New Delhi, generating 24 MW of power using waste.

MODERATOR

Brajesh Kr. Dubey @IIT Kharagpur

Brajesh Kr. Dubey is presently Professor – Circular Engineering, Dept of Civil Engg, Chair – School of Water Resources at the Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), India. Dr. Dubey received Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Prior to his present academic tenure in India, he has served as a faculty member at University of Auckland, New Zealand; East Tennessee State University, USA; and at University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Dubey has over 17 years (post PhD) of socially focused applied research experience within the broad fields of environmental, sustainable/resilient systems and circular economy approaches, addressing the nexus among sustainability, resiliency, infrastructure, waste, energy, health, and the environment including advocating the need of science-based policy.