Illegal dumping sites thriving in City: Study

A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has revealed that 10 to 15 per cent of the total three lakh tonnes of waste generated daily goes to illegal dumping sites on the outskirts of the City.

Over 250 small illegal dumping sites have been identified by a group of 50 student volunteers under the aegis of scientists, professor H N Chanakya, Swetamala and professor T V Ramachandra from IISc.

Pointing out that dumping is rampant in the northeast and southeast parts of the City, Professor H N Chanakya, Chief Research Scientist, Centre for Sustainable Technology, said that this was because many trucks that collect waste in southern parts were unable to reach the landfill sites within the scheduled time.

“Both Mandur and Mavallipura are situated in the north of the City and the dumping sites close by 6 pm. Hence, if trucks reach after that, the waste is disposed of at some vacant land close to the roads or where the trucks can easily move in,” he explained. He added that dumping happens only at night and nearly 10 to 15 per cent of the waste end up in these illegal sites.

As per the report of the study titled ‘Estimating Unauthorised Dumping of Urban Solid waste around Cities - A case study of Bangalore’, waste is being dumped on steep hill slopes, quarries etc and illegal dumping of waste is happening both inside and outside the City.

The dumping sites vary, if it is inside the City, it will be small in size and will last for one or two days and if it is outside, it will be bigger and persist longer, according to the report.

Volunteers were trained to observe and estimate the number of dumping sites and evaluate the size and composition of each. Divided into teams of two, volunteers not only visited dumping sites but also took photographs of the sites.

A total of 83,557 tonnes of garbage has been dumped in these illegal dumping sites and the waste included 60 per cent of plastic, organic and fermentable waste and other materials such as construction waste and recyclable waste, as per the study.