Let’s gear up for garbage

The question tackling the problem of garbage is compounded by the fact that few people are aware of the intricacies of the subject. Presented below are some of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) and their answers

What are the different kinds of garbage
There are many kinds of garbage- wet and dry, electronic waste, garden waste, medical waste, sanitary waste and so on. However, the BBMP as a first step has focused on wet and dry waste collection.
Wet waste is your kitchen waste, which needs to be thrown out every day. It includes food waste- cooked or uncooked, vegetable and fruit peels and remains, etc.
Dry waste includes paper, cardboard, plastic, etc.

How do you segregate them
Segregate them by storing them separately. Wet waste goes into a bin and papers can be stored separately to be handed over to pourakarmikas who visit homes once a week, specifically to collect dry waste.

Points to remember when you segregate
Make sure that wet waste is not put in plastic covers or these will not be taken by the pourakarmikas.

Also remember that dry waste should not be mixed with food remains.

The point of segregation is to compost the wet waste and recycle the dry waste. If dry waste such as paper has food remains on them, it cannot be recycled as the food remain starts decomposing and will stink.

How are they disposed
Hand over the wet waste either in paper bags to pourakarmikas who will come to collect wet waste every day. The dry waste collection will be done once in a week. Schedules of the days allotted to pourakarmikas for each area will be published by the BBMP.

What are the benefits of segregation
The recent garbage crisis was caused due to the fact that although BBMP removed garbage from the streets of homes every day, this was mixed garbage and was dumped in landfills on the outskirts of the city. With over 5000 tonnes of garbage being generated from the city every day, the pressure on landfills was too much to manage. Mixed garbage in unhealthy disposal of garbage- apart from wet and dry waste it could also contain batteries, oil, aerosols, etc which are toxic.

By segregating waste, we can recycle more. Instead of sending 5000 tonnes of garbage to land fills, almost 100% of the wet waste is composted into fertiliser and the dry waste can be recycles.

Insteead of 100% of garbage being dumped in landfills, only 10% (mostly inert waste that are difficult to decompose) are sent to landfills.

In time, BBMP plans to make away with the practice of dumping waste in landfills. Perhaps, in a few years, there will be no landfills in the state and we can all manage the waste effectively.