Garbage and waste segregation has been much talked about over the
past few months now. And while the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike
(BBMP) is grappling with the effective implementation of waste
segregation, ward-wise, there are high-rise complexes, considered bulk
generators, who have implemented these measures even before BBMP made it
mandatory.

“We started last year,” says Nalini Shekhar, a resident of Shobha Opal in Jayanagar 4th ‘T’ block.

And
to persuade everyone was no easy job, says Shekhar, who’s also the
founder of Hasirudala, an NGO that mans about 23 operating waste
segregation centres set up by the Palike. “Even though it was just
kitchen waste, there were people who told me, ‘how can you touch all
that after puja’. Whenever you want to bring in change, there is
resistance,” she says.

The apartment has two tanks – one to
collect dry waste that is picked up by contractors three times a week
and one to compost wet waste. “So to involve the community more and
bring down the resistance, we had the children from our buildings create
murals on the tank’s walls,” she adds.

On issues of hygiene,
Shekhar says, “The trick is to reduce the volume by shredding – both wet
and dry waste,” adding that three other high-rise buildings in
Jayanagar have implemented similar procedures.

Forward 150, a
resident initiative of ward 150 (Belandur) with about 5,000 residents
from apartment complexes on Sarjapur Road, too has taken waste
segregation and disposal in the vicinity into its own hands. “Some of us
started in 2011,” says Malini Parmar, an IT professional and resident
of Springfields there. But like many other Bangaloreans, they too
realised that once the segregated wastes left their gates, the wet and
the dry were mixed.

“So that was when we approached Hasirudala,
and they pick up our wet waste once a week now. The dry waste is picked
up by the local vendors. But we still have a problem with our reject
waste – medical and sanitary wastes. We had approached the BBMP, and
they suggested that we tie up with a hospital, but it didn’t work out.
So the BBMP helped us get permission from Karnataka State Development
Corporation (KCDC), and that’s where our reject waste goes right now,”
she adds.

While the Palike has penalised those who do not conform
with the deadlines and the guidelines, there are others who are
stricter. “In our community – we have 540 flats altogether – we fine
anyone who fails to segregate their waste `500,” says Parmar.

Now,
Parmar is looking at implementing the move in residences across the
ward. “I’ve had talks with Kalpana Kar, member of B PAC, a part of the
Wake Up Clean Up Bengaluru initiative and Almitra Patel, member of
Supreme Court Committee on Solid Waste Management,” says Parmar.