Delhi turns to Bangalore for lessons in garbage collection

Delhi turns to Bangalore for lessons in garbage collection
Ruhi Bhasin | TNN

New Delhi: The stench and accumulation of garbage around dhalaos (garbage dumping sites) all across New Delhi will soon be passe. Inspired by Bangalore, New Delhi’s mayor Arti Mehra, standing committee chairman Vijender Gupta, along with MCD officials, will visit Bangalore on Friday to implement a dhalao-free city in the capital.
Delhi has 5,000 dhalaos and garbage is collected from households by garbage collectors who transfer the garbage at dhalaos. It is then taken to the landfill sites. But now, the civic agency is planning to do away with the dhalaos and begin door-to-door collection from where the waste will be directly taken to the landfill sites.
“The dhalaos are not a pleasant site and the stench emanating from them is unbearable. We are planning to do away with them in the next four years and will visit Bangalore on Friday to see how they manage their solid waste without the dhalaos,’’ said Gupta.
It may be noted that while the civic agency has been trying to implement door-to-door collection for sometime it has not worked so far.
In Bangalore, door-to-door collection of solid waste is a successful programme. Waste is collected from households, commercial estates and industries. The city generates 3,500 tonnes of solid waste as compared to 6,500 tonnes produced by Delhi. “In Bangalore, segregation is done by the garbage collector into biodegradable and non-biodegradable. The plastic is shredded and mixed with bitumen for road construction,’’ Gupta said.
“We want to make Delhi a dhalao-free city. We will begin with a pilot project in one of the zones at first to see how successful this practice is before going ahead with it in other zones,’’ Mehra said.