The Hindu             17.07.2013

Udupi to take up scheme to segregate waste at source in a month’s time

The Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) is set to take up a pilot project of waste segregation at source in 3,000 houses in a month’s time.

Under the pilot project, these houses would be given two buckets — one red-coloured, and the other green. Residents would be instructed to put bio-degradable or wet waste into the green bucket, while plastic, glass and paper material would have to be put in the red bucket.

SHGs help

These buckets would be collected daily by members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and the biodegradable waste would be taken for processing and land-filling at the 22-acre solid waste management plant (SWMP) in Alevoor village.

Plastic waste

Plastic, glass and other material will be sold to scrap-dealers for recycling.

“People of these 3,000 houses would have to pay Rs. 30 per month to the SHGs for collection of the waste. The aim of the pilot project is to make the citizens aware of the importance of waste segregation,” said Subrahmanya M.K., environment engineer of the the City Municipal Council.

Udupi city generates 58 tonnes of garbage everyday. Of this, 7.12 tonnes is plastic waste, comprising carry bags and cups. There are 32,000 households in the city.

The Udupi CMC banned the use of all kinds of plastic, including carry bags and cups, on September 15, 2012. However, a few private companies approached court and got a stay order against the ban.

Consequently, plastic material have once again made a come-back.

“The CMC has appealed against the stay order,” said CMC Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak.

Cloth and paper bags were being used by the people during the period when plastic was banned in the city.

According to Mr. Subrahmanya, during the six months of the ban period, the use of plastic material had come down by nearly 75 per cent.

Segregation of waste at source would save the CMC time and money. The CMC spends Rs. 1,320 (including wages, vehicle cost and transportation charges) to process one tonne of garbage.

Now, residents put all the waste — both wet and dry — in big plastic carry bags, which are then collected by the SHGs and sent to Alevoor. “Since the waste has to be removed from these bags and then segregated, a lot of time is wasted. If wet waste is available straight away, it can be processed and be used for land-filling,” Mr. Subrahmanya said.

The CMC took up waste segregation at source in about 250 houses on an experimental basis about two years ago. “But we did not follow it up as we expected the Waste to Energy (WTE) Project to materialise, and it did not require waste segregation. But the project has got delayed for various reasons,” said Mr. Nayak.