JOIN USWhere waste can be a money-spinner
In its struggle to clear the mess that Bangalore has become in the wake of the ongoing garbage crisis, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seems to have become totally oblivious of other ways of getting rid of the rubbish.
Not just that, the cash-strapped Palike appears to have forgotten that it can make a dime or two from the uncleared garbage.
Look at this. Only 10 percent of the waste generated in the City is recycled whereas the rest is dumped in the landfill sites. If the civic agency is keen on getting a way out of the garbage disaster and avoid it in the future, it needs to look for alternatives, including recycling with private partnership on a large scale.
A few not-for profit organisations as well as private companies have already turned waste management into a wise money-spinning venture. And their efforts have started yielding results.
Saahas, an NGO active in waste management, has been able to offer viable solutions through its subsidiary, Saahas Zero Waste Solutions. It spends the money generated thus on creating awareness about waste management.
The efforts have drawn praise from environmentalists. The Executive Trustee of Civic Bangalore, Kathyayini Chamaraj, offers a word of advice to the BBMP.
“The money spent on garbage collection and its transportation can instead be routed to such works as composting, generation of bio-gas electricity, and recycling the recyclables,” Chamaraj told Deccan Herald.
A City-based recycling firm, KK Polyflex, has been churning out an environment-friendly product from the plastic waste. The company says it has been able to reduce plastic waste by using innovative methods in asphalting with roads with bitumen mix.
The technology, described as “a unique patented technology”, entails using recyclable plastic as raw material procured from rag pickers. “We are earning profit from rags, harnessing technology for the constructive use,” Ahmed Khan, the company’s managing director, said.
Wilma Rodrigues of Saahas says packaging industries should be held responsible for recycling of the waste generated. “Holding the manufacturers accountable will improve the level of waste management at source,” she said.
Unfortunately, however, none of the landfill sites — Mandur, Mavallipura, Kumbalgodu, and Terra Firma — has a proper recycling mechanism although ragpickers do the retrieving job. Instead, they create another kind of pollution.
The lack of awareness among citizens about recycling garbage generated at home is only making matters worse.
“Most people think the garbage cannot be recycled, and hence dump in the landfill sites which causes pollution of a different kind. The attitude of ‘I am giving you waste and you give me money’ has to change,” says Rodrigues.
Nonetheless, the small-time efforts to bring awareness are paying off. The response in a few localities dominated by cluster houses, apartments and corporate houses is positive and gaining momentum in reducing waste at source, Rodrigues added.
The segregated disposal of waste has been a boom for scrap dealers and waste retrievers. A new breed of e-scrap retrievers and dealers is now focusing on procuring e-waste generated by software firms in the form of Wep peripherals, dry cell batteries, CDs, etc.