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Karnataka body moots garbage panel

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The state committee for solid-waste management has proposed forming a municipal solid-waste board to move away from dumping waste to managing it.

“Remember what happened in Bangalore when it briefly got the nickname of Garbage City when the dumping areas closed down? This can happen in all cities. Why would anybody living in villages and small towns allow big cities to dump their garbage in front of their homes into dumps, pollute their water, air and land! Moreover, even the waste land is too expensive to be used as dump yards,” committee member and former chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Sharatchandra said.

Speaking with dna on the sidelines of a state-level seminar on plastic management, he said: “Governments and local urban bodies should raise policy initiatives based on financial instruments. Presently, funding for garbage management in ULBs and city corporations is at an abysmal level. And due to too much official intervention, the waste is being treated the easy way—by dumping. It was still better if a model for the entire country could be developed based on the experience of Bangalore,” Sharatchandra said.

Citing a report from The Energy and Resources Institute, Sharatchandra said the vision plan 1997-2047 must see India move away from landfill culture to technological advancemen to produce energy from waste.

T Raghavendra Rao, chairman of the Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Projects, Mumbai, said Bangalore had pioneered in setting up the revolutionary polycrack technology in solid-waste management. Infosys campus has its own polycrack unit, which can crack hydrogen and carbon molecules in the garbage, including plastic, and produce light diesel oil.

Other places that have installed the polycrack units include Indian Centre for Plastic and Environment in Delhi and a few other countries including Tunisia, Italy and the US.

“Transportation of waste from one place to another will be extremely expensive in the future. The landfills are already loaded with waste material which will be enough for 20 years (for waste-processing units),” Rao said.

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