Corporates offer to take City out of garbage mess

A small group of corporate bigwigs and social entrepreneurs on Thursday came forward to provide a ‘roadmap’ to the State government to put in place an efficient and sustainable waste management system for Bangalore.

Biocon Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw and V Ravichandar of the Bangalore City Connect Foundation (BCCF) met Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and volunteered to finalise the roadmap. But there were no details of the proposed blueprint to be presented to the government.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Shaw said the roadmap would be prepared with the help of experts in solid waste management and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials. It would cover all aspects, right from modalities of segregation at source, recycling,  processing to scientific disposal of waste.

She said the chief minister had responded positively to their proposal and had assured all support and cooperation. 

Once the roadmap is prepared, it would take at least six months for implementation, she said. 

“Garbage problem is something of a challenge that has accumulated over the last two decades. We cannot solve it in two weeks,” she said.

Shaw said she had also suggested the setting up of a Waste Management Regulatory Authority as an apex body to monitor and regulate waste management with the BBMP as the implementing agency.

 BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel and BDA Commissioner Sham Bhat were among those present at the meeting.

Fines for non-segregation

Bangalore City Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy, who  held a separate discussion with Shettar on the garbage disposal scenario in Bangalore, said BBMP proposal to impose fines on residents who dispose household waste without segregation at source was still before the State government. BBMP had also proposed to levy penalties on pourakarmikas and officials if they fail to follow the guidelines pertaining to municipal waste management. 

10 new proposals

Goel told reporters that the BBMP has received ten fresh proposals on processing accumulated garbage at various landfills in and around Bangalore. 

The BBMP had already received 17 proposals in this regard. All the 27 proposals will be evaluated by an expert committee soon.

A Bangalore-based German firm Hazardous Waste and Water Management (HAWA) has proposed to use environment-friendly “bio-capping” and “bio-mining” methods to process accumulated garbage at landfill sites. 

The firm’s senior advisor Jurgen Porst made a presentation on the technology to the chief minister. The proposal will also be evaluated by the expert committee, Goel said.

Goel said as many as 2,331 bulk waste generators in BBMP limits have been asked to provide details on how they were processing the waste generated. 

They would be encouraged to adopt technologies developed by Bio-fuel Board to convert waste into energy, he said.

New contractors for garbage disposal in BBMP limits will take over within the next 15 days, Goel said and added that a new vigorous drive to create awareness about the importance of segregation at source would be launched on December 1.