Bengaluru: The saying, ‘Waste is wealth’ is often put into practice in countries like Singapore, Sweden and Canada, which efficiently use garbage to produce electricity. Not so with the BBMP, however, for whom this mantra seems to be far removed from reality as garbage is considered a heavy burden by the civic body.
A city-based NGO has now come to the rescue of the BBMP by buying dry waste from dry waste centres and processing nearly 60 tonnes of garbage. ‘Swacha Eco Solutions’, a one-of-its-kind company in the dry waste processing arena, has launched Material Recycling Facility (MRF) which converts plastic waste into plastic lumps. The NGO does three types of recycling at its centre in Attur in Yelahanka.
Speaking about MRF, Victoria D'souza, founder of ‘Swacha Eco Solutions’, explains that road waste (like covers) are sent to the processing centre, where it is further converted into feed to manufacture pipes for agricultural purposes.
“Secondly, we process High Density Polyethylene (HDP) which consists of shampoo bottles, boxes and other thick plastic items. Since we do not have plants to process it, we grind them and send them to re-processors. Lastly, Low Density Polyethylene (LDP), which is pure, white plastic, is used to produce tarpaulins,” Ms Victoria says.
Thanks to the NGO, the BBMP can now reduce nearly 200 tonnes of garbage every month sent to the landfill. Stressing that segregation of garbage is still one of the biggest challenges, she adds, “Many citizens have still not understood the meaning of dry waste, wet waste and sanitary waste. Not many pourakarmikas at the dry waste collection centres are willing to segregate the waste as they do not earn any money out of it,” Ms Victoria says.
Another hurdle, according to her, is finding space to install the processing plants as most of the citizens refuse installation of garbage processing plants in the vicinity of their homes. The founders of ‘Swacha Eco Solutions’, Victoria D’Souza, Vinay Raghavan, Rajesh Babu and Ramya Pidbidri, have plans to extend the processing plants to other areas. They aim to install one plant in every Assembly constituency with the help of the BBMP.
“The BBMP, which has allotted land to us for two years, has seen our model. Though the BBMP too is considering installing its own plant in every Assembly constituency, our plants are sustainable and eco-friendly. With bigger plants by next year, we hope to drastically reduce the garbage sent to landfills,” she says.
