Garbage collection to improve in Mangalore

The Mangalore City Corporation has decided to give a new year gift to the residents by collecting the garbage from their doorsteps.

The door-to-door collection of the garbage will be extended to all the 60 wards before the new year, Mangalore City Corporation Commissioner Dr Harish Kumar said. Now, the garbage is collected from homes only in certain areas of the city.

The commissioner gave the information at the MCC monthly meeting here on Friday.
The commissioner said that work order has been given to the contractors and they would start garbage collection in the next fortnight.  “We will collect solid waste from doorstep without segregating it till door-to-door collection stabilises in 58 wards.”

When Deccan Herald contacted him, the commissioner gave the full details of how the scheme will function. He said segregated waste will be collected at two wards-- Mannagudda and Court from December 1. These two will be made model wards for segregation of solid waste.

“Initially we want people to get used to door-to-door collection. Later, they will be asked to segregate waste in phases. Once the segregation practice stabilises in Mannagudda and Court wards, it will be extended to neighbouring wards in a phased manner,” he said.

Every house in the two wards will be given two bins of 10 litre capacity. The green one will be for storing bio-degradable waste and the red one for non-degradable waste. Every apartment in the two wards will be given two bins of 150 litre capacity for the purpose. Each ward will be given two pushcarts and a vehicle for collecting solid waste, an official said.

The Commissioner said that under the renewed eight-package scheme, it is mandatory on the part of contractors to collect solid waste from doorsteps.  

Earlier, rules were not stringent to cover all the wards. The success rate was only 40 per cent. The contractor will collect plastic separately from every household, he added.

As per the new guidelines, helpline will be opened for public to complain if the contractor fails to collect waste, on a particular day. The corporation will adopt a technology to monitor online whether its contractors have cleared solid waste from cement bins and metal containers in the city daily, the Commissioner added.    

“As per the new guidelines, the corporation will give contractors cell phones and they take photographs of the cleared bins and containers daily and send them to the designated website. Details like date, time and location will be on the photographs. If the contractor fails to upload the photo or clear the bins regularly, then he will be penalised with cut in his payment,” he added.

The collected waste will be dumped in the landfill site of the MCC at Pacchasite, will be managed by another agency, which will segregate the waste and convert the degradable waste into manure. The landfill site will be handed over to the agency within 15 days, for maintenance for a period of six years, Dr Harish said.