Before deadline, make Bengaluru waste ready

The BBMP announced its roadmap 2019 and its plan to roll out the city solid waste management plan. Before you sigh and say, Oh no, not again, let’s say this time it seems to be different. The movement has been frustratingly slow, but it is finally coming together.

Awareness drives at 3 levels
To make this segregation at source a huge success, we need three levels of awareness drive on a massive scale. One at the city level, second at the ward level and the third at the doorstep.

One drive should be taken up for the whole city, where the message must be spread across far and wide.

On the second level the campaign should be led by the ward corporator and the ward committees. They should spread the message at the ward levels.

Coming to the third level, the campaign has to be led by the pourakarmikas, who collect door-to-door garbage. They need to make the people aware about the necessity of segregation.

Only if all these three levels create awareness then the BBMP will be able to achieve its 100 percent segregation target. BBMP which has an action plan to reach this target will also have take up widespread awareness drives one by one.

What the BBMP has planned?
The next few months will see BBMP waste management system sport a new look, smartly turned out collectors at the doorstep and pourakarmikas in good looking uniforms with full protection gear and handy tools. You can even start seeing a swanky looking pushcart.

There is more. Collection is going to be smart too, with every collection vehicle being tracked through phone apps and through a centralised control room. No more excuses to the autos for not showing up at the doorstep. What’s more, it’s not one but two autos who are going to show up for collection . The wet waste auto, which comes everyday to collect the wet and sanitary waste and the dry waste auto, which comes in twice a week.

What you have to do?
Get smart yourself. Put in a 2 bin 1 bag system in your home, if you haven’t done it already. Put in the kitchen waste into the green bin with a lid, empty all the food packaging of any food and drop it into a reusable bag which you can keep hanging on a hook and keep a red bin in the bathrooms for the sanitary waste.

Be sure to wrap the sanitary pads in paper and dispose of the poop from the diapers before dropping it into the bin. Keep the green and red bin near your gate for collection every day and leave the dry bag hanging in a hook on two days of the week. Tie up any garden waste that you have and leave it for pick up. If you have this figured out, make sure your neighbours are doing it too.

—The writer is Sandya Narayanan, member of Solid Waste Management Round Table.