WASTE FOOTPRINT MODEL FOR CALCULATING THE WASTE FOOTPRINT OF URBAN RESIDENTIAL AREAS

Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization almost all the urban areas in the developing countries of the world faces the major challenge of finding a way to balance human consumption/impacts and nature's limited productivity, in order to ensure that the communities are sustainable locally, regionally and globally. Regarding the impacts, solid waste management issues are the most critical ones, as it is found to be the root cause for many other problems like water logging, mosquito threat, environmental pollution, aesthetic problems etc. in the urban areas. In almost all the urban areas of the developing countries the wastes generated from the residential areas contributes the maximum. But people are not aware of the quantity of waste generation from their own houses and work places, nor do they realize that the residential wastes are a major threat to waste management in the city. To provide a qualitative environment and atmosphere in urban areas with regard to solid waste management, a quantitative approach for waste management is to be applied. Waste foot printing technique is such a quantitative tool which can assess the individual impact on earth due to waste generation. This paper presents a waste footprint model for calculating the waste footprint of urban residential areas through a case study in Kochi city, South India.