Bangalore: To tackle the problem of garbage, the city corporation is giving priority to segregation: it is contemplating having separate time-tables to collect dry waste and wet waste.

The city generates about 3,500 tonnes of garbage every day. To deal with the issue, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has introduced a policy on solid-waste management, with emphasis on segregation of garbage at source.

As per the BBMP's policy, it will be the contractors' responsibility to ensure that the garbage is segregated before it is sent to landfills. Also, it will be the contractors who will have to spread awareness about segregation among people.

The citizens who have been working with the Palike towards managing garbage have given thumbs up to the policy.
However, they say there are a few aspects that need to be taken care of.

The contractors' mandate has to be clearly defined. "If his mandate is to just collect and dispose, he might do that. But if there is an incentive to give as much as possible for recycling, then that will be his goal," said Anupama M of Daily Dump.

Some frown upon the fact that most of the responsibility of segregation has been thrust upon the contractors. "It seems that there is no incentive for the citizen to segregate... There has to be some penalty or incentive to discourage this," says Shaheen Shasa of Hasiru Usiru.

Meenakshi Bharath, member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table, said this would happen. There will come a time when there will be punitive action against those who do not segregate or even a time when mixed garbage will not be collected.

"We are asking for tax rebates for entire wards. If one household does not do it (segregation), the entire neighbourhood will not get the rebate. Peer pressure will force people to fall in," she said.

'Use RWAs' experience'

"There are many RWAs who are already managing waste and have already encountered many problems and sorted them. Their experience can be used to plan before giving fresh contracts," Shaheen said.

Anupama said while it was appreciable that the city corporation was thinking of setting up bio-methanisation plants to process waste, the apartments too should start composting the garbage.

Bharath said the Kartavya Centres or dry-waste centres in the wards would play a positive role.

"We will have lists put out for people to see what will fetch what price. They will get market rate for the waste they bring. We expect about one to four tonnes per centre per day. We hope to reach this target in six to eight months," she added.