Apartments segregating trash, but contractors mixing it up, says study

Good waste management practices by apartments are undone by garbage contractors, says a study conducted by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and Sichuan University.

Findings of the study were released on Friday. The study focuses on decentralised solid waste management (SWM) policy innovation in Bengaluru with special emphasis on residential bulk generators (apartments having more than 50 dwelling units). 

One of the research team members, Megha Shenoy said: “The most common complaint from apartment dwellers across the city was mixing of wet waste and dry waste by garbage contractors. These contractors outsourced by the Palike were not following segregation rules as mandated by the high court. The mixing of garbage by contractors at apartments is one of the major challenges in implementation of the SWM policy.”

The study pointed out that though apartment complexes were following dry and wet waste segregation, most of them fared poorly in managing sanitary waste and did not have a system in place to dispose of them effectively.

Researchers are now planning to publish a journal and distribute it to apartment dwellers across the city, through the civic agency.

The research team, comprising five people, started the study a year ago with an objective of ascertaining the challenges in implementation of the BBMP’s SWM policy, study policy features, collect feedback from public and approach the municipal authority to improve waste disposal methods.

Xuehua Zhang from Sichuan University, who was involved in the research, said she is currently in talks with a few communities in China for implementation of composting and segregation methods adopted in Bengaluru.

“At present, garbage is being buried or incinerated in China which is not good,” she added.