Quantitative and Qualitative Characterization of Solid Waste Generated in Chitrakoot (India) and Its Management: A Comparative Study of Karwi and Chitrakoot Nagar Panchayat.

Chitrakoot is a religious place in India and on a major festival day over 1,00,000-12, 00,000 people visit this place. Therefore, a study on solid waste generation was carried out. During the study, the MSW composition in Karwi was found as polythene (6.73%), plastic (5.14%), rubber (3.17%), metals (4.43%), glass (4.98%), wood (3.75%), cotton & cloths (6.37%), paper & cardboards (9.53%), vegetable wastes (13.52%), soil & constructional wastes (30.71%), garden waste (6.03%), rags (2.90%) and meat waste (2.72%) and in Chitrakoot the MSW composition was found as polythene (10.12%), plastic (4.78%), rubber (3.70%), metals (2.84%), glass (4.08%), wood (5.55%), cotton & cloths (4.29%), paper & cardboards (7.77%), vegetable wastes (11.66%), soil & constructional wastes (29.87%), garden waste (9.73%), rags (2.29%) and ash (3.32%). The waste management options provided by municipality are very poor and ineffective. No landfills, incineration and composting functions are performed. Chitrakoot municipality primarily has no function to reduce the size of waste including separation and recovery of valuable material. Community participation in solid waste management may be a better option.