Segregating garbage at source turning futile: Residents

For Apeksha Kulkarni, a resident of HSR layout, it was a daily fight with the civic workers as the latter was collecting garbage from all neighbouring houses, except hers.

After frequent fights, Apeksha had no choice but to segregate waste at source.

“I have now understood how much of effort it requires to segregate the waste. But it pains to know that all the effort goes waste,” said Apeksha.

In February 2017, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) made it mandatory to separate the waste at source. By April, there were reports of the city achieving up to 50% of segregation at source. However, due to lack of will in enforcing stricter laws and regulations, the percentage has been steadily declining, said solid waste management experts.

“As of now, the city is segregating about 40% of garbage,” said N S Ramakant, a solid waste management expert.

While most citizens do not even know that the BBMP has made it mandatory to segregate waste, some claim that there was no use in doing it as everything gets mixed in the end.

“I have been segregating waste, but the dry waste collection does not happen here. And finally, the sanitation workers mix both,” said Smruthi Zacharia, a resident of Jayanagar 5th Block.

“There is an absolute lack of political will to enforce stringent rules. A couple of other reasons, such as missing auto tippers and compactors, and lack of enforcing micro plan rules also add to the problem,” said Ramakant.

“The civic body can learn lessons from Muzzafurpur in Bihar. They introduced segregation at source a year ago. Out of 35 wards, 90% of them have achieved it already,” he said.

BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, however, believes that the entire process can be successful only if citizens participate.

“In this huge city, where about 4,500 metric tonnes of garbage is generated daily, it is humanly impossible to sort this issue without the help of residents. Most of them do not segregate garbage, and even if some do, it is unfortunate that some sanitation workers mix it or all get mixed up in the end. Creating more awareness and informing about the benefits of the initiative has to be done more,” said Prasad.