Hoteliers, both big and small, might have realised the importance to ‘go clean’ by following a systematic garbage disposal system at their restaurants. However, for some roadside eateries, old habits die hard and these joints continue to be a major source of the City’s garbage menace.
Right from push-carts to hawkers on footpaths that serve chaats to dosas and non-vegetarian dishes, all are equally to be blamed for the mess that they contribute to — be it at Sajjan Rao Circle, Avenue Road, BTM Layout, Basavanagudi or any other locality where they have set up shop. When Deccan Herald visited these spots, it found that hygiene is the last thing on the mind of those running the business; they merrily ply their trade with no concern for cleanliness.
At Market Road near Sajjan Rao Circle, popularly known as ‘food street’ that operates till late in the night. The food leftovers, paper plates and cups are all dumped in front of the shops once they down shutters and there is nothing like a ‘will’, much less anything remotely like a method, to segregate the waste.

Taxing stink
And a majority of those running these joints say it is the duty of the civic authorities to clear the waste “as they collect tax, don’t they?” “It is not that we are not concerned about hygiene... we ensure that the leftovers are dumped at a particular spot every day and not thrown in the open. But it is the duty of the civic authorities to clear them the next day,” says Vivekananda, a hawker.
Similarly, on Avenue Road, the picture is not pretty. Waste is strewn all around once the hawkers and push-carts wind up for the day (night!). Plastic plates, plantain leaves, egg shells, meat leftovers and such are thrown in the open -- for the cows and, of course, canines to feast on.
But says a customer, “It doesn’t matter whether the place is clean or not, all that matters is that this is one of the few spots which serve food till late in the night.”

Customers wrong
Passing the buck to the customers, a tea-stall owner says that though most of these roadside eateries have kept dustbins to dump used paper plates and plastic cups, very few have the ‘courtesy’ to dump them there after use.
The culprits are not just the night-time eateries, but also the ones that serve food during day who don’t follow any procedure for segregating the wastes.
On Bore Bank Road in Benson Town, food leftovers are dumped barely metres away from the push-cart which has a beeline of customers everyday. Residents of the locality make repeated requests to dispose of the refuse, but the vendors couldn’t care less.