BANGALORE: Perhaps these residents are already preparing themselves for the enforcement BBMP
will soon enforce-to make segregation of waste at source mandatory. But
thanks to some active citizens who took the task upon themselves to
clean their neighbourhoods.

Areas like RT Nagar, HMT Layout,
Anandnagar, Sanjaynagar and Dollars Colony have been practicing
segregation at source for over six months now. “We started a campaign in
these few areas, where we give residents a big jute bag and a tag of
instructions to follow to help them segregate dry waste and store it for
a week. Then as per our schedules of door-to door pick up, we collect
the dry wastes and segregate them in the dry waste collection centres
(DWCC),” said Anjana Iyer, trustee, Full Circle Trust.

This trust is a not for profit organization where they resident welfare association ( RWA) of these areas work closely with the BBMP to segregate waste and reduce the amount of garbage
to be thrown finally. While waste picking for RT Nagar takes place on
Tuesdays, Anadnagar’s dry waste is picked up from houses on every
Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Sanjaynagar and Dollars Colony
residents hand over their dry waste bags to the pourakarmikas every
Saturday and Monday. The Full Circle trustees have earlier announced the
dates and timings when the waste bags will be picked on a door-to-door
basis in particular areas.

These DWCC
were handed over to the RWAs from November 2011. The tag which the bag
contains says how to simply clean the dry waste, like milk packets of
cereal cartons, tetra pack containers, toothpaste tubes and metal cans
and then keep it the bag for the week until it is picked up by the waste
pickers.

“The wet waste is mixed and cannot be stored for long.
We also have not been able to formulate a routine to collect that. Also
many people are in to composting in their gardens,” she said. However,
the process helps them reduce burden on BBMP to a great extent. In fact,
works are in process to open the DWCC in Ganganagar by first week of
September.