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The High Court of Karnataka took serious exception to the absence of BBMP Administrator M N Vijay Bhaskar from the court proceedings during the hearing of a batch of solid waste management PILs on Friday. The Special Bench constituted by the High Court comprising of Justice N Kumar and B V Nagarathna refused to accept submissions from the petitioners during Friday’s hearing, owing to the absence of the BBMP Administrator in the court. “During the last hearing in April, the court had given one and a half months time to the newly appointed BBMP Administrator and the Commissioner to study…

A background Schools play an important role in keeping our environment clean. One important step in this process is educating students and the wider community about reducing the amount of resources consumed, so that we do not needlessly throw used material into garbage bins.  For this waste ultimately lands up in street corners, lakes, forests, outskirts of the city and in village grazing pastures and farmlands causing massive pollution and creating major public health hazards. While each of us can do a lot in making schools less wasteful, better results are achieved when the whole school makes a commitment to minimizing…

  The Coalition for Clean India, a network of organisations working on solid waste management presented a five-point Charter to the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on World Environment Day on May 6th 2015, at the Parisara Habba held at Kanteerava Indoor Stadium. Here is the letter that was shared: "We, citizens groups, organisations and individuals working on Solid Waste Management have come together, as Coalition for Clean India, to highlight a clear and common agenda, for sustainable practices in Municipal Solid Waste Management both in the State of Karnataka and at the national level. The Agenda of the Coalition for…

The Karnataka Composting Development Corporation (KCDC) has decided to serve a notice to Terra Firma Biotechnologies Pvt Ltd, on cancellation of the agreement for supplying vermicompost, after the issue of garbage being sold as vermicompost came into light. A citizen and a Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) official spotted garbage being burnt in a site near Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru, at Choodasandra in Chikkanayakanahalli area. They were shocked to see that the sieved fine garbage powder was being filled into bags labelled ‘vermicompost’ with the name of KCDC on it. Citizen Matters had carried an exclusive story on this…

Over the past 15 years the population of the city has increased more than 2.5 times, from 4 million to close to 10 million, the per capita garbage generation on an average has doubled, from 0.25kg/capita to 0.50kg/capita, and the composition and fabric of garbage has drastically changed, from about 80% compostable organic waste and a great part of the 20% being recyclable, to less than 60% compostable and a great part of the 40% being rejects, that will have to be landfilled because they are mixed waste. This article has been made possible thanks to support from Aruna Green…

In May 2014, the residents of Casa Ansal, disgusted with the garbage piling up on their side walls, had called on the help of the Ugly Indian, and had this clean-up drive that I had written about: Garbage cleaning at Casa Ansal. The ditch was covered with granite slabs and the wall completely painted. Six months later, the wall continues to be clean, and the footpath walkable (except for the place behind the transformer at the Bannerghatta Road end where the autorickshaw wallahs insist on continuting to relieve themselves.)  So...I am posting this photo of the place as it is…

From: angarika@maraa.in 2 manhole cleaners suffocated to death in Bangalore recentlyArmed with a bottle and a stick, a man descends: into the dark sulfurous depths of the city. Vanishing acts, made possible by the labour of workers who live and die below the surface. This man, we call the “scavenger”.Join us on 11th Oct for a walk, along the Chambers of Ward 88. To lift the lid and see who lurks beneath. The walk is olfactory. The walk is a provocation. The walk is a call to introspect. This walk will be guided by Angarika Guha and Ekta Mittal as part of Horaata,…

Compact Fluorescent Lamps fall under e-waste category, however Bangalore does not have a system to recycle them. Pic: Wikimedia and Wikihow We feel good about the savings Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) achieve in terms of energy efficiency and cost, and the bright lights that light up our homes. The city of Bengaluru sees high CFL usage. However, once a CFL loses its life, what does one do? Throw it carelessly into dustbin away from one’s eyes, and forget it? What happens to it then? Here’s what happens. The CFL light joins a pile of garbage, tied inside a plastic cover.…

Today at 6.30pm Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will interact with Spain on best practices for managing waste. I am not sure which adage passed my mind when I read the latest news report on BBMP and our garbage mess. “Grasping at straws” for seeking help from sister city San Francisco or “Making hay when sun shines” for possibly sending officials to Dubai to study waste management. Wasted BBMP trips on managing waste When Sharadamma was the mayor, a BBMP team led by her had visited Pune. In 2012, a team led by then-deputy S Harish went to Israel to study…

A small portion of the garbage pile in Mandur landfill. Pic: Shree D N The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has withheld the payment of more than three crores to Srinivas Gayathri Resources Recovery Limited (SGRRL), the only processing unit at one of the garbage dumping yards at Mandur, that supposedly had the capacity to process 600 tonnes of waste per day. This resulted in the company shutting down its operations three months ago, claims Srinivas Reddy, the Operations Manager of the plant at Mandur, located near to Hoskote Highway on the north-eastern outskirts of Bengaluru. What waste management firm says:BBMP…