It was in April 2012, under the leadership of the
Chief Officer of the Municipality, Rayappa, Moodbidri Municipality
decided to do away with the system of collecting waste once in a week
from the concrete bins put up in the town. Instead, they opted for
door-to-door waste collection with the help of self help groups.

Before
the programme was initiated, a widespread awareness campaign was
conducted. People and commercial establishments were asked to segregate
waste from the source itself and keep it in two covers as degradable and
non-degradable waste.

Self help group members would collect
waste from 9,000 households and 2,400 commercial establishments in the
Municipal limits reaching them in goods autos and tractors. Barring
Sundays, waste is collected everyday between 8 am and 5 pm, with an
average 15 tonne everyday.

Waste is not ‘waste’

”Out of
the 15 tonne of garbage we collect daily, 5 tonne will be
non-degradable. Plastic bottles and other non-degradable items were
given to scrap dealers for re-cycling.

Once in two days, 5 tonne
non-degradable waste is sold to Mangalore City Corporation on a cost of
Rs 250 per tonne,” explains Municipality Chief Officer Rayappa, who has
been instrumental in the successful implementation of the programme.
Wet waste of the degradable garbage was given to the farm of well-known
progressive farmer of Moodbidri, L C Soans.

Around 6 to 8 tonnes
of degradable waste is being given to Soans farm daily. Workers at
Soans Farm convert the waste into organic manure and use in the farm
which consists of around 100 acres. ”Now there is no problem of waste
management in Moodbidri. We convert the waste to compost and use it as
manure,” says L C Soans.

As there is no slaughter house in
Municipal limits and the number of non-vegetarian consuming people is
very less, the quantity of non-veg waste is much less. Rayappa says that
the Municipality daily collects only 5 to 10 kg of non-veg waste and it
is used to fill Municipal land at Jyothinagar, mixing with soil. For
the 25 apartments in the city, each has set up three waste bins to
collect garbage.

Strict action against  non-compliance

”For
collecting waste, Rs 30 will be charged from every household and
between Rs 50 to Rs 200 from commercial establishments according to
their category on a monthly basis,” said Rayappa. In this manner, on an
average, Rs 1.75 lakh reach the hands of self help groups. This amount
is spent on SHG members salary, maintenance of four vehicles and towards
the loan payment of vehicles.

If anyone throws waste in public
place or fail to pay the monthly charges, SHG members will at once alert
Chief Officer and he will issue notice followed by imposing penalty
according to the Karnataka Municipal Act 1964 (Section 224, 263, 276).
Rayappa added that many a times commercial establishments defaulted on
payment but when they were met with strict measures compliance of rule
was gradually followed.

Since April 2012 to August 2013, an
amount of Rs 8,450 was charged as penalty in seven cases for non payment
of monthly charges or as fine for dumping waste in public places. A sum
of Rs 225 is the fine imposed to household whereas it ranges from Rs
2,000-5,000 for commercial establishments.

People speak

A
L Vas, a grocery shop keeper at Moodbidri Market said that the garbage
disposal programme is now showing results only because authorities are
strictly implementing it.

He adds that unlike in many places
where people and shops keep the segregated waste, in Moodbidri, SHG
members are carrying the waste as degradable and non-degradable. Zaira, a
homemaker told that she has no complaint regarding waste management.

“SHG
members come everyday and collect segregated waste and put them into
the separate gunny bags kept in either side of the tractor,” she said.