Bengaluru’s dry waste management at a crossroads

Bengaluru has 160 collection centres, but overall management of dry waste management is still a challenge

Bengaluru: Piles of dry waste collected in the dry waste collection centre (DWCC) in ward number 23, Geddalahalli, make people wonder what is wrong with the dry waste collection system in the city. But the reality is neither rosy nor dismal.

The city’s growing population and increasing urbanisation have outpaced the development of waste management infrastructure. Why do we see waste piled up in the DWCCs? Capacity overload, delays in disposal or transportation of the trash, and increasing quantity of non-recyclable reject waste can lead to accumulation in dry waste collection centres.

There is another problem. Mansoor, a DWCC operator from Jayanagar, says what used to be sent out of the state for recycling has had no buyers for the last three months, which led to the accumulation of dry waste in many centres.

An expert in the field says when the crude price falls globally, recycling industries typically take a hit, as production of virgin plastic turns out cheaper than recycling. She says this may be one of the reasons why recyclable dry waste gets no buyers.

A DWCC operator from Domlur said the BBMP had not paid the DWCC operators, which led to the problem. “We are talking to BBMP to figure out a solution,” he added.

Another source says at any point in time, only 40 per cent of the dry waste collected went to recycling. Most other waste, such as multilayer plastics and packaging materials, is not reusable or recyclable. These are the low-value plastic waste piles awaiting collection in the DWCCs. They are later sent to the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant on trial at Bidadi as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). 

However, the overall dry waste collection system is at a crossroads and is confusing as of now, as the new integrated garbage tender has yet to come up.

S N Balasubramaniam, general secretary of the BBMP Garbage Contractors’ Association, says the current garbage pick-up contract mandates only wet waste pick-up for the contractors. Dry waste is entirely the responsibility of non-governmental organisations and self-help groups. 

The new garbage contracts will have a system to collect both wet and dry waste. Waste picker associations and informal recyclers will still play a key role in Bengaluru’s waste management system. The dry waste will be sent to the DWCCs, where it is segregated further. High-value ones are recycled and the low value will go as RDF to the WTE plant. Contractors hope this will put an end to issues that are bothering waste management in the city.

Current issue

A contractor says many dry waste collection centres are not collecting dry waste anymore. At the heart of the issue is the problem of funding. The BBMP announced a special package to help the waste picker organisations become self-sustainable. The package was supposed to provide them with a vehicle and funds to operate the collection and primary transportation for six months. By then, the DWCC operators were to attain self-sustainability and operate it all by themselves.

This worked for six months. Some centres achieved self-sufficiency by selling the waste they got, but many dry waste collection centres failed. “In 198 wards, only 30-35 can run efficiently today,” says a source in the know.

As a result, collecting and transporting dry waste in the wards where DWCCs are not functional falls on the local garbage contractors. “We are supposed to collect only wet waste. But if we do not collect leftover dry waste, locals complain and ensure we are not paid for the autos. So we collect and manage the dry waste by selling the high-value waste,” says a contractor.

There are more than 160 DWCCs in Bengaluru. However, these are not sufficient.  Regular garbage contractors often lack sufficient space, equipment, and staff to process and store the large volumes of mixed or dry waste generated daily, he adds. In some areas, this can even lead to garbage burning.

The garbage contractors also have the problem of vehicle shortage. “The garbage vehicle allotment for solid waste collection microplans was done in 2017 using 2011 census data, which is used even in 2025. This data is outdated and the quantity of waste is much more. We need to provide enough vehicles to pick up all the waste without issues,” he says.

WTE as a solution to reject dry waste

Meanwhile, the WTE plant jointly run by  KPCL and BBMP is still on trial, and not ready to be handed over to the KPCL yet. This was supposed to make use of all segregated dry waste as fuel, The 11.5MW plant constructed on 15 acres inside the KPCL’s 150-acre land in Bidadi was supposed to be operational by September 2023 tentatively. 

The Karnataka government looks at this project as a model of a solution to the problem of increasing dry waste in various cities. Many deadlines have been set for its opening, but the official inauguration has yet to happen. The plant also ran into a problem due to a technical snag that led to a death this week.

The BBMP signed an agreement to provide 600 tonnes of RDF daily to the plant modelled on the lines of a similar plant being run in Jabalpur considered successful by officials.

Basavaraj Kabade, Chief Engineer, Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited, says that the BBMP is sending RDF from across the city, including DWCCs, to the WTE plant in Bidadi. “We need 600 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel for the plant to run. We are sending it from various places, including waste from dry waste collection centres, waste management plants and legacy waste from Mandur as per the commitment. The plant is still under trial,” he added.

Preventing the future problem

The dry waste collection system in Bengaluru faces several challenges, leading to the frequent sight of waste piling up at collection centres. Waste collection is not always done on time due to logistical challenges, staff shortages, a lack of resources or even other reasons. Inadequate segregation at source is always a challenge, which leads to mixed waste going to landfills, which later becomes legacy waste that needs expensive processes to segregate plastic waste. 

“Some marshalls are hands-in-glove with contractors and allow them to dump garbage on the roadside. In many areas, the collection system is not proper. The waste collection vehicles arrive when people are out of their homes. This leads to dumping by citizens as well,” says Mohan Rao, a citizen who fought to fix the problem of garbage burning in the past.

Many residents also fail to properly segregate waste into wet, dry, and hazardous categories. This increases the burden on waste collectors and slows down the sorting process at collection centres. This needs to be streamlined with more awareness, says an expert. He points out that the WTE plant needs an RDF that has good calorific value, which is possible only when the waste is segregated at the source.

Tying up waste management efforts with carbon credits and extended producers responsibility is a possibility but it needs a systematic approach, says the expert.