Civic agency will deliver organic waste in a phased manner at farmers’ sites.
In a proactive move to rescue the city from increasing piles of garbage, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) has finally hit the jackpot that would inevitably lead to a win-win situation in ridding the city of its waste.
The BBMP has resolved to transport organic waste (wet waste) to farmers around Bangalore, who have shown an interest in accepting the waste for conversion to compost and using it as fertiliser to boost cultivation.
As per a resolution passed on Saturday and armed with the permission of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, the BBMP will deliver organic waste in a phased manner at farmers’ sites and will pay `66 per ton to the farmers as charges for composting and sieving. The farmers will then be free to use this manure for their lands.
The BBMP has already asked citizens of Bangalore to segregate wet and dry waste, the former to be lifted daily while the latter on a weekly basis. The wet waste collected from Bangalore homes will now find its way to farmers as an alternative to costly chemical fertilisers on being composted.
“We look forward to a win-win situation in this partnership where we dispose of our wet waste in an environment-friendly manner and farmers get composting material at their doorstep,” said Rajneesh Goel, BBMP commissioner, who hit upon this idea.
Farmers have already shown an interest in this proposal. The plan requires the farmers to submit a copy of their records of rights and consent letters to receive up to 20 tonnes of wet waste from Bangalore per acre per year.
In a way, the plan intends to revive India's traditional recycling of plant nutrients from urban wastes to the farmlands.
To do this, we wish to provide pure biodegradable food, fruit and flower wastes at their (the farmers’) doorsteps to help tide over their current massive shortfall of organic manure,” Goel said.
In a letter to Goel, dated September 28, KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya while accepting the proposal has directed that BBMP should make a list of interested farmers with necessary addresses and quantity to be given to them date-wise. It has also directed that BBMP will take up the shredding of large-size organic waste before transporting the same to the farmers’ sites.
City’s benefit
Depending on the popularity of this plan, increasing number of farmers would approach BBMP to accept wet waste from the city. That would drastically reduce the piles of garbage that at present have no takers due to complaints from villagers about stinking landfills. Wet waste is more in volume and the frequency of its generation is much higher than dry waste which BBMP plans lifting only once a week. All this plan now needs to succeed is the proper segregation of wet waste from dry waste at home.
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