India is well on its way to progress but one of the major factors that is obstructing this progressive pace is the neglect towards waste management in the country. India is slowly drowning in its own garbage. The rate at which India is currently generating waste, it is estimated that by 2030, the country will need a landfill almost as big as the city of Bengaluru, to dump its waste. Urban areas alone generate around 62 million tonnes of garbage every single year, making India the third largest garbage generator in the world.

If we need to meet the goal of a Clean India by 2019 then waste management issues should be dealt with urgently.

There are many new ways in which countries around the world are managing their waste. A lot of inspiration can be drawn from these methods which are mentioned below-

1- GERMANY- How to Deal with Plastic Menace

A company in Germany called The Leaf Republic produces plates made out of leaves. Well, we can trace this back to the Indian tradition followed in mostly southern parts of the country. After 3 years of extensive research, the company introduced ?Leaf Plates? in order to deal with the growing issues of plastic pollution. These plates are entirely made of leaves and the company claimed that not a single tree was cut in the production of these plates. The plates cost 50 cents each and are 100 percent biodegradable. The company has sourced the special creeper leaves from India and the packaging is inspired by the Asian tradition of stitching the leaves into plates. Many Indian companies have begun doing this commercially but the trend still needs to catch on.

2-BELGIUM- Dealing with waste with the help of Ecolizer

Belgium has introduced two sophisticated waste management techniques: the Ecolizer and the green event and assessment guide.

The Ecolizer tackles the waste problem at source. It is a web-based calculator that helps promote sustainable design and clean low waste production that enables designers and companies to assess the environmental impact of their products. It takes into account processing, transport, energy and waste treatment to discover ways of reducing the impact of these variables by changing design. For example, it is possible to calculate the environmental footprint of a coffee machine by finding the scores of the different variables and then assessing what changes in design could be made to reduce its environmental impact.

The green event and assessment guide is another digital tool that is used in Belgium in the fight against waste generation. It allows event organisers to calculate the ecological impact of their events and is even able to prevent waste during them. Their website also has a list of places that lend reusable cutlery for events in a bid to promote best practice and promote eco-friendly businesses.

3- AUSTRALIA- Make Way For BigBelly And SmartBelly Bins 

 Gone are the days of good-old garbage bins that only helped in storage. The world is getting smarter! While most people are grappling with growing waste and litter woes, it seems Australia has found the perfect solution with the Bigbelly Solar compactor bins and SmartBelly bins. These bins are smart enough to create extra space for garbage when the bin is full and even segregate the waste automatically at the point of collection. The SmartBelly bin is also Compostable Friendly.

Each bin has 600 litres of capacity which means it can hold upto eight times the volume of common street litter bins or five times the volume of your average 120-litre wheelie bin.

The working of these bins is quite simple. BigBelly works with power from the sun. As garbage fills up, special sensors placed inside these bins are triggered, resulting in up to five times more garbage storage space. So, how does that help? More garbage space means fewer collection trips, lower costs and fewer emissions.

4- AUSTRIA- Using Traditional Initiatives to Segregate Recyclable Waste

Although being a small country in area,Austria sure is doing big and impactful things in waste management. The country has been successful with a number of traditional initiatives to separate recyclable waste and reduce landfill using taxes and incentives. Austrian bio-tech companies have developed a new high-tech way of waste management which uses fungal enzymes to recycle PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) which is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, The PET is broken down into its monomer building blocks by the enzymes which can then be converted back into more high-value polymers. By using bio-engineered fungal enzymes, the recycling of PET plastic can be done ?naturally?, without the production of any new by-products, with less new production materials having to be made using petroleum and 100% of the material recycled can be used. 

The methods as mentioned above are slowly and gradually being implemented in India and these developments have the ability to eventually create a chain reaction by which every country that is victimized by excess waste can find the required alternatives.