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Clearing out the trash: Deccan Herald
Bangalore, Feb 16: There was a time in BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) history when garbage was auctioned. The composition and qualities of waste made it easily convertible to manure or compost. Waste is perhaps one of the determinants of the rapidly changing lifestyle. With computer parts, automobile spares and loads of metal scrap mixed with garbage, it has reduced the scope for converting waste into wonder. Nobody wants waste anymore.
Bangalore, Feb 16: There was a time in BMP (Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) history when garbage was auctioned. The composition and qualities of waste made it easily convertible to manure or compost. Waste is perhaps one of the determinants of the rapidly changing lifestyle. With computer parts, automobile spares and loads of metal scrap mixed with garbage, it has reduced the scope for converting waste into wonder. Nobody wants waste anymore.
Disposal of approximately 2,500 metric tonnes of waste generated per day in Bangalore city is by no measure a small task. With about 340 trucks (including private ones) operating in the City to transport garbage to landfills or to the composting centre and 7,000 workers from private contractors and 4,500 BMP workers actively involved in garbage collection and disposal, garbage management is the need of the day.
With the composition of garbage itself changing with the changing lifestyles, newer, innovative methods of garbage management are called for. Different types of garbage require to be disposed of in different ways to minimize ill effects on the environment and to set a trend for the future.
The immediate problems to be tackled, however, are to curb the erratic dumping of garbage on vacant sites and the stray dog menace. “The dustbins problem has been tackled to a large extent by the introduction of the Swachcha Bangalore scheme, which covers 90 per cent of Bangalore. The stray dog menace, however, is not under our control, sterilisation is all we can do,” says BMP Deputy Commissioner (Health) Mr V P Ikkeri.
The main aims of door-to-door garbage collection are firstly, to remove dustbins and secondly, to segregate garbage into wet and dry waste. The next step will be to urge citizens to give wet and dry garbage separately, and this is already being done on a pilot basis, says Mr Ikkeri.
Disposal of approximately 2,500 metric tonnes of waste generated per day in Bangalore city is by no measure a small task. With about 340 trucks (including private ones) operating in the City to transport garbage to landfills or to the composting centre and 7,000 workers from private contractors and 4,500 BMP workers actively involved in garbage collection and disposal, garbage management is the need of the day.
With the composition of garbage itself changing with the changing lifestyles, newer, innovative methods of garbage management are called for. Different types of garbage require to be disposed of in different ways to minimize ill effects on the environment and to set a trend for the future.
The immediate problems to be tackled, however, are to curb the erratic dumping of garbage on vacant sites and the stray dog menace. “The dustbins problem has been tackled to a large extent by the introduction of the Swachcha Bangalore scheme, which covers 90 per cent of Bangalore. The stray dog menace, however, is not under our control, sterilisation is all we can do,” says BMP Deputy Commissioner (Health) Mr V P Ikkeri.
The main aims of door-to-door garbage collection are firstly, to remove dustbins and secondly, to segregate garbage into wet and dry waste. The next step will be to urge citizens to give wet and dry garbage separately, and this is already being done on a pilot basis, says Mr Ikkeri.