he Hindu      15.10.2014  

Segregation of waste at source is the key

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s plan to reopen Mavallipura landfill is facing opposition from neighbouring village residents.— File Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Solid waste management situation in the city is a ticking bomb with Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) obligated to discontinue dumping of city’s waste at Mandur from December 1.

With just 45 days away, the six new garbage processing units on the city’s outskirts that are to take the burden away from Mandur, are yet to become operational. It is a hard battle to get all these six units completely operational by December 1, officials concede, raising fears over the units getting converted into dumping yards.

The six garbage processing units are outsourced to private companies and are to convert wet waste into compost. Earlier experiment of waste-to-energy that failed has been done away with now.

BBMP officials claim that these processing units coming up have technology to segregate waste. However, they add that as around 40 per cent of the waste is dry waste, segregating it at the unit would also lead to additional costs and segregation at source was the best option out.

Waste management experts aver that key to the success of any processing unit is segregation of waste. However, segregation of waste at source has woefully failed in Bangalore, both due to systemic neglect and lack of response from citizens.

While BBMP’s waste segregation campaign at source failed, no further campaign to educate the public on segregation has been taken up. Experts point out that BBMP does not have in place a system to ensure segregation and collection of segregated waste.

Meanwhile, BBMP’s plan to reopen Mavallipura is facing opposition, especially from residents in 12 villages around the landfill site. Village residents have been protesting against BBMP as the leachete had polluted the groundwater.

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has put brakes on BBMP’s revival plans, which are yet to be cleared by the Airport Authority of India since the landfill site is close to Kempegowda International Airport in Devanahalli

However, despite all assurances and promises to tackle the situation, citizens now are left wondering if the civic authority will be able to handle the imminent crisis.

‘Short-sighted’

Experts have complained the government was being short sighted and just spreading the Mandur crisis to six different locations.

Ashwin Mahesh from Loksatta Party questioned why the city’s waste was being taken out of Bangalore. “If the processing units were so safe, why are they being set up on the city’s outskirts?” he asked. The crisis cannot be resolved until the only solution was to take the garbage out of the city, he said and added that decentralisation of garbage processing was the only viable solution.

BBMP officials claim that there are plans to establish processing unit in each Assembly constituency now that BMTC is all set to hand over 223 acres of its land to the civic authority.

Reporting by

K.V. Aditya Bharadwaj

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The Hindu            11.10.2014

Solution to e-waste management in 3 city Corporations in sight

The vexed issue of e-waste management is likely to get a solution in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram Corporations towards the end of this month and Kozhikode set to follow shortly.

Clean Kerala Company Limited (CKCL), an initiative under the Local Self-government Department, has identified a Palakkad-based agency through tendering for the collection and processing of e-waste in the private-public-participation model with zero investment to the State.

Giving a fillip to the arrangement was a government order issued on Friday authorising CKCL to collect e-waste from government bodies and public sector enterprises.

Local bodies, in association with CKCL, would identify locations for collecting e-waste from where the agency concerned would collect and transport it to its processing centre in Hyderabad.

“We are in the process of finalising locations in consultation with the two Corporations and will start operations on getting clearance from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board,” Kabeer B. Haroon, managing director, CKCL, told The Hindu .

As per the arrangement, CKCL will buy e-waste from local bodies at Rs.5 a kg and sell it to the collecting agent three to four times that rate.

Mr. Haroon said the collection and processing involving a third party was only an interim arrangement with the ultimate target being setting up a plant of its own to treat e-waste as envisaged in the last budget. “Once that happens, we would be able to double the profit through e-waste processing compared to the new arrangement,” he said.

The collection and processing system will be extended to all interested Corporations and municipalities in due course. Panchayats will also be able to avail themselves of the benefits from the system, provided a block panchayat or district panchayat takes the initiative to coordinate it.

A preliminary survey conducted has put the e-waste generation in the State at 6 to 10 tonnes a month. But that is the figure taking into account the organised sectors alone.

“The volume generated in the three Corporations would be taken as a sample for arriving at a more accurate figure based on which areas in need for collection centres will be identified,” Mr. Haroon said.

Palakkad-based agency to process e-waste

Local bodies to identify spots for collecting e-waste