100% garbage segregation in city by December 2021

The state government has sought time till December 2021 to ensure 100% garbage segregation by the civic body.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is also reworking the Solid Waste Management (SWM) user fee after it withdrew the earlier fee of Rs 200 per household per month.

In its submission before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the government said the BBMP has set up a central command centre for monitoring solid waste management. “Rs 22.32 crore is being used to track vulnerable spots,” it said, adding that enforcement and levy of penalties will help the BBMP meet the target.

Quoting the BBMP special commissioner for solid waste management, the chief secretary said in the submission that the collection of the user fee as per the SWM bylaws will be taken up “once the government” gives its approval.

“The collection of SWM user fee in some form will be implemented as per the SWM bylaws, 2020.

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The modalities of the collection of the user fee and implementation are being worked out,” the BBMP special commissioner has said.

The submission showed the status of enforcing the SWM Rules-2016 in Bengaluru has been poor. While only 45% of the wet waste was segregated, 70% of bulk waste generators were yet to implement in situ composting or biomethanation of wet waste.

The government said decentralising the processing of more than 4,500 tonnes of solid waste in the city was ongoing and is likely to be completed by April 2022.

“Additional lands are being identified. Several letters are addressed to the BDA for the allocation of lands for establishing decentralised processing units. The BDA has to hand over these sites to the BBMP,” it said, adding that requests regarding land have also been made to the Bangalore Urban district administration.

Door-to-door collection by Aug

The submission sets the ambitious goal of achieving 100% collection of garbage at the doorstep. “With new tenders for collection and transportation in place, 100% coverage will be achieved by August 2021,” the government has said.

The government has set December 2022 as the deadline for all the wards to follow the SWM rules and for completion of works like capping of abandoned landfills.