New waste rules, old problems: Bengaluru’s 4-bin plan faces early heat

As Bengaluru rushes to roll out four-way waste segregation under SWM 2026, gaps in systems, costs, and ground realities raise tough questions.

The Solid Waste Management Rules 2026, notified by the Government of India and applicable from April 2026, mandate the segregation of waste into four streams at the source, namely: wet waste, dry waste, sanitary waste, and special care waste. It mandates that the storage, collection, and handling of waste also follow this categorisation.

The rules have 18 months of implementation timeline, but the city seems to be gearing up for it sooner.

In a bid to familiarise the city with the new rules, Bangalore Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) organised a one-day workshop on April 18. More than 700 residents and officebearers of apartment associations and resident welfare associations participated in it, along with marshals and officials.

A BSWML official says that Bengaluru is an early adopter, but since the rules apply across India, every municipality is required to begin educating citizens and implementing the systems needed to ensure success.

While the city already had a three-way waste collection system, with wet, dry and sanitary waste, the fourth category now introduced involves ‘special care waste’, which has paint cans, bulbs, mercury thermometers, expired medicines and other hazardous household wastes that cannot be handled by hand.

“Each of these wastes is further segregated and processed as per the protocol for each waste,” says a BSWML official. 

“An important feature of the SWM Rules 2026 is that it introduces the concept of Extended Bulk Waste Generator Responsibility (EBWGR),” he adds.

SWM Rules-2026 define “bulk waste generator” as satisfying at least one of these criteria: (i) buildings with a floor area of 20,000 sqm or above; or (ii) water consumption of 40,000 litres per day; or (iii) solid waste generation of 100 kg per day.

In addition, local corporation rules classify a) any entity with an area of 500 sqm or above, and b) apartments that have more than 100 flats as bulk waste generators.

The BSWML official explains that representatives of every bulk entity must register it on the central portal and periodically upload the quantity of waste produced.

When the corresponding mapped processor uploads the processing certificate, and it matches the waste uploaded by the generator, the generator receives ‘credits’ in line with extended producer responsibility (EPR) credits.

“Existing bulk waste generators who cannot set up and operate decentralised wet waste processing facilities due to space constraints, etc., can obtain an exemption from the local body and procure EBWGR certificates from the local body for processing an equivalent amount of wet waste,” says the official.

Uncleared garbage piles up outside Yarab Nagar’s Primary Health Center in Banashankari, Bengaluru. 

These certificates are traded in the CPCB portal and can earn revenue for the communities that manage their waste well, adds the official, emphasising that the good practise can also reward the community.  On the other hand, if anyone violates the rules, they will be caught and penalised, he says.

Reality bites harder

However, while the plans of the union government and the way BSWML is gearing up to implement them sound very idealistic and fantastic on paper, the reality of garbage segregation on the ground in Bengaluru remains far from ideal.

“The mandate is essential and a step in the right direction for sustainable waste management. However, its success depends heavily on reliable daily waste collection from both vendors and BSWML. Without this, even well-segregated waste loses its effectiveness,” says Deepti Saxena, a resident of the Kudlu area, who also runs an initiative called Clean Front - Clean India.

“SWM 2026 rules state that in cities with a population of over a million, the implementation timeline is 18 months. But why are we not being given that time to adjust and prepare?” asks Satish Mallya, President of Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF).  “Corporations must bring a bylaw before the implementation, which has not happened yet,” he adds.

Satish Mallya says that the responsibility of collecting and processing bulk waste has been given to three firms, which he calls a monopoly. “Nobody even knows whether the selected vendors have the capacity to deal with the waste each corporation they handle generates,” he adds. While this might make the process of generating EBWGR certificates easier, Mallya worries that without solid end-to-end systems, it might also become a sham.

“Apartments that are not empanelled with any vendor have been asked to pay Rs 12 per kg to collect and process waste, which is way too much,” Mallya notes.  Documents show that apartments have the freedom to negotiate a price with the vendor to manage waste, which can be less than Rs 12/kg as well.

‘Conscious consumption is the key’

Arunkumar, another office bearer of BAF, explains that there are various waste streams and corresponding treatment methods for each. “Are there enough systems to handle this? Who’s going to certify? Is someone doing an eye wash of the certification process? We don’t want that. We want a genuine process,” he adds. 

There is a lack of clarity on the types of waste as well. “What is special care waste? What are the special care waste items that an individual home can produce? Citizens need to be educated about it,” he observes.

He also adds that it is not just the government, contractors, and the citizens; even e-commerce companies should be roped into the loop. “Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato and all other e-commerce outlets deliver items in packages and carton boxes. They have no take-back mechanism. The government should ask all of them to reduce packaging waste or find ways to take it back,” he adds.

“Social media posts boast of making money by selling discarded packaging material. But the reality is that this is not something one can be proud of. It takes a toll on the environment. We need more conscious consuming and packaging, and rules to discourage it,” he explains.

Graroot workers neglected

Every system is as strong as its foundation. Garbage contractors, collectors and pourakarmikas on the ground make the foundation of the system on which Bengaluru’s waste management stands.

A garbage contractor who did not want to be named says that BSWML officials make the auto drivers and staff separate low-value plastic from mixed waste and send it to the corporation-owned waste-processing plants, which later go to private cement plants. 

“When residents do not segregate waste, auto drivers and assistants are forced to segregate plastic from waste. This results in time delays and health problems for the staff. Some of the auto drivers have filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission regarding this,” he adds.

“We are forced to segregate mixed waste collected from individual homes and garbage dumps. Many cleaning staff who have been working for years have started quitting the profession because of this. Many of them have suffered from health problems,” explains Thyagaraj, an officebearer of Karmika Samrakshana Trade Union that represents a section of garbage contract workers. 

He says the drivers are still not being given direct payments from the government, which means a cut goes to contractors who employ them. 

“We are the backbone of a clean city, and a key to maintaining public health in Bengaluru,” he emphasises. “The government invokes ESMA (essential services management act) when we protest, yet they are treating us as contract workers,” he adds.

The protests staged by union members in December 2024 and March 2025 achieved nothing, even though Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had promised to meet their demands within a month. 

This situation makes two things crystal-clear: One, the city may be boasting about its segregation percentage, but not enough citizens are segregating their waste. Secondly, the city will still be dependent on the same system unless citizens are mandated to segregate at home and mixed waste stops being dumped on roadsides; therefore, meeting the four-way segregation target will be that much harder.