BCC evolves a policy on solid waste management

BCC evolves a policy on solid waste management
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Bangalore City Corporation has finally evolved a policy on solid waste management (SWM). The policy, though late, intends to comply with the rules of the union ministry of environment and forests.

The civic body has faced criticism both from the public and the Supreme Court for failing to adopt scientific SWM practices. Recently it had acquired land in Mavallipura and Mandur for landfills but they have not started functioning yet.

City area of 226 sq km, with over 14 lakh buildings, generates 2,200 metric tonnes of garbage every day. The policy seeks to develop more landfill sites over 6,000 acres to meet the requirement for the next 25 years, said BCC Commissioner K Jothiramalingam.

Apart from landfills, the BCC has identified sites for three transfer stations -- one in each of its zones.

Transfer stations are facilities where garbage is taken immediately after collection and further segregated and compacted into trucks.

Preliminary waste processing is also done at these facilities.

“We face more difficulty in acquiring land for transfer stations than for landfills. As these sites are in city limits, people resist setting up of such facilities in their neighbourhood,” sources in the BCC health department said.

The BCC is initiating a scheme called Shuchi Mitra to involve citizens and is upgrading its existing facility called ‘Health Net’.

The SWM Policy, to be implemented in association with BWSSB, Slum Board and BESCOM, has already got the approval of the standing committee on public health and will come up before the council at its meeting on October 26.