Bengaluru generates about 6,000 tonnes of solid waste everyday. As the city has grown, so have the challenges of solid waste management (SWM). As per this report from The New Indian Express, the city has seven landfills and six waste-processing units, which have not been upgraded for close to a decade now. With no BBMP elections since 2020 and general attitude of the people that their garbage ought to be someone else’s problem, SWM has hit a black spot.
Administrative flip flops
In 2023, the BBMP floated 89 tenders for the collection and transportation (C&T) of municipal solid waste from 243 wards, estimated to cost Rs. 590 crore per year. However, this order of handing over SWM responsibilities to Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) has been temporarily put on hold, over concerns relating to GST.
In September this year, the Karnataka government approved the integrated waste management (ISWM) project, along the lines of Chennai and Hyderabad. The project will start with collection and transport of municipal solid waste from households to secondary transfer stations and processing plants.
The initial plan was to send nearly half of the city’s garbage to four parcels of land: Doddaballapur, Mandur, Bidadi and Gollahalli but this was dropped after MLAs opposed it, as per a Deccan Herald report. This prompted the government to set up a seven-member committee to identify land for the same; an order was passed on September 2nd for private land options to be explored, if there were issues with acquiring public land.
On September 16th, two officers of Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd (BWSML) were entrusted with the responsibility of identifying land.
Loopholes in the project
While DK Shivakumar visited Chennai to study its waste management strategies and the ISWM project was approved straight after this, the solution to Bengaluru’s waste problems lies in the city itself. For one, the ISWM project has a major loophole: It does not promote ward level or in-site processing or composting of waste.
In 2012, the Principal Bench of the High Court of Karnataka of Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice B. V. Nagarathna had issued landmark directions on management of solid waste in Bengaluru, which included mandatory segregation of waste at source and decentralisation of waste management.
In 2017, the High Court, as part of the series of hearings in the 2012 case, issued an order that solid waste should be managed at the ward level in Bengaluru, as per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976.
With no BBMP elections being held for four years, ward committees are not functioning to their potential. ”There are no corporators who can be held to account. Nodal officers are not conducting ward committee meetings,’’ says Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee at CIVIC.
High Court 2012 judgement
- All municipal waste in Bengaluru will be segregated at source (at the household level).
- BBMP and state government to ensure that “Segregation and Wet Waste Processing Stations shall be located and made operational in the 28 Assembly Constituencies within two months” from the date of the order.
- Every ward should have at least three segregation and wet waste processing stations
- The Court observed: “Landfills are only a temporary solution and that long term measures have to be initiated by all concerned Authorities as a permanent solution”.
- Trucks to carry waste in segregated form.
- BBMP may seek the assistance of NGOs or other private agencies for segregation of waste and disposal of dry waste while wet waste has to be transported to composting sites identified by the civic body.
Information courtesy: Environment Support Group
Read more: Bans, clean-ups, recycling push: Why all of this has failed to beat plastic pollution
Solutions
The unscientific dumping of garbage in distant landfills is neither eco-friendly nor feasible. Kathyayini offers practical solutions.
“Instead of spending 590 crore per year for the collection and transportation of municipal solid waste from 243 wards, can we use the same Rs 500 crores to give every one of the roughly three million householders of Bengaluru a compost bin, available at Rs 1,500 each, and solve the garbage crisis at source? That too, this is an investment that does not recur every year as each compost bin can serve the purpose for several years,” she points out.
Kathyayini suggests using the remaining Rs 90 crore to set up street-level compost bins and community bio-methanation centres in every ward to serve those citizens who may not be able to compost their wet waste at source. “If residents around the bio-methanation centres can get free gas for their household cooking, they will not oppose the bio-methanation centres in their neighbourhood,” she says.
Citing the example of Alleppey (Kerala), Kathyayini says, “Its municipality gives the composting or biomethanation equipment to every household at 90% subsidised rates, so that wet waste gets processed at source and there is no need for transporting garbage. Such equipment can be installed in every slum lane-wise.”
She adds that reforming infrastructure is the need of the hour. “The open tempos that collect waste violate all rules meant for segregated and hygienic collection of waste. They have no separate compartments for collecting dry and wet waste separately. Garbage is exposed to the environment, and to the collectors and citizens, endangering their health. It is often dumped on the ground and then lifted manually and loaded into compactors. Waste collectors sit on the garbage and pick out dry waste with their bare hands.”
In markets and where household or street level composting is not possible, street-level, colour-coded, secondary waste collection bins should be installed which can be towed away to the community composting or biomethanation centre, she says. “These can also serve as an alternative to those who missed the door to door collection and would otherwise dump garbage on the ground, creating black spots.”
Read more: Seven policy measures needed to beat plastic pollution in our cities
Not in alignment with Bengaluru Climate Action Plan
Transporting garbage out of a ward would also be in conflict with the Bengaluru Climate Action Plan (BCAP) inaugurated recently, as it contributes to increased transportation costs and a larger carbon footprint.
BCAP suggests diversion of waste from landfills by better segregation at source. The aim is to achieve 100% segregation of waste by 2025 and achieve over 90% of diversion of waste from landfills by 2050 (60% by 2030 & 75% by 2040). The current system is not in alignment with these targets.
The government should first fix local governance, instead of constantly coming up with untenable ideas. To start with, taking into cognisance and implementing the High Court directions would be a step in the positive direction.
In other news
In September, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) hauled up the state government over its violation of rules and regulations in treating legacy waste in urban local bodies, and for not disclosing crucial data on waste management.
The BBMP has proposed an SWM cess of Rs. 100 per month for each household to cover cost.