The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started slapping notices to housing societies and other bulk waste generators for not segregating waste at source as stipulated by the civic body. Many housing societies and bulk garbage generators had stopped segregating and treating their waste at the source throughout lockdown.
The BMC administration has warned these bulk waste generators and housing societies to prosecute them if they do not start segregating and treating wet waste at the source.
"Many people in residential societies are not segregating their waste, so the workers have to separate dry waste from wet after the collection. In October first week, we sent notices to all the wards to encourage societies to start segregating their garbage and processing the wet waste as was being done before the lockdown," said an official from the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department.
By the end of October, BMC had set a target to reduce the amount of garbage being sent to dumping grounds and ensure 100 per cent segregation of wet and dry wastes within the next two months. However with many societies stopping segregation at source, this seemed a distant dream, hence the civic body was left with no option but to send notices to them.
The city generates about 9,000 metric tons of waste every day. In order to bring down the amount of waste generated and taken to dumping grounds, it was made mandatory for housing complexes, malls, hotels with an area of more than 20,000 square meters and generating 100 kg or more waste per day to segregate the garbage and treat the wet waste at the source.
A total of 3,125 housing societies, malls, and hotels, and other establishments were identified as the bulk generators of these 1,619 housing societies had started segregating and composting waste in their premises. However, segregation and composting have stopped in many of the 1,619 societies during the lockdown, SWM official has said.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani had a meeting last month with the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department officials and directed them to work towards ensuring all the waste generated in all 24 wards should be segregated by end of 2020.
As the city is slowly returning to normal, the SWM department is also trying to get back on track. Many societies had developed infrastructure and started processing waste last year, but priorities changed during the lockdown. Some housing societies have resumed segregation, but many are still reluctant, some who used to carry out segregation stopped during the pandemic induced lockdown.
Monthly figures show that the average dry waste dropped to 87 kg in April from nearly 190 kg in February at segregation centres. However, in the past few months, it increased to around 100 kg.
