Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is promoting a two-bin waste disposal system, but Bengalureans have a more effective alternative.Campaigners from the city have made presentations in Delhi, on the sanitary hazards and human cost of two-bin system.
BENGALURU:On June 5 (World Environment Day), the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) is going to start a nationwide waste segregation at source campaign, to ensure that citizens classify their waste into two categories - solid and liquid.
However, the citizens of Bengaluru, and a few other cities like Gurgaon, Pune and Coimbatore, are trying to appeal to Prime Minister Modi and the SBA to do away with this two-way segregation of waste, and adopt a three-way model instead. The three-way model, where sanitary/hazardous waste (sanitary napkins, diapers, blades, bandages, etc) makes up the third category, citizens say, is the best way to go about disposing one’s garbage.
While there have been presentations made to the Swachh Bharat team in Delhi about adopting a three-way segregation system, experts in the city say it is unlikely for a change to happen before June 5.
Bengaluru’s Success Story
In 2015, the Karnataka High Court had directed citizens to adopt a ‘2-bin-1-bag’ system of waste collection and disposal, and the BBMP and the two citizen groups backing the corporation in this initiative – the Bangalore Eco Team and the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) – say that it has been a success.
Seema Das from Bengaluru Eco Team says, “We have 2,000 odd volunteers who are promoting this 2-bin-1-bag system along with the BBMP officials. We also have santhes where we educate people on this.”
She says that in the two last years, many municipalities from across the country, in places like Sikkim, Coimbatore and Trichy, have and studied this three-way segregation system and have tried implementing it.
What is the corporation doing?
Das says that the BBMP has failed to have campaigns to promote this three-way model. She adds that all the campaigning has happened at the santhes the Bengaluru Eco Team conducts, and different RWAs participate in these santhes.
Even Dr Sandhya from the SWMRT opines that the BBMP has failed to do any active campaigning to promote three-way segregation. However, she says that they have created a network of master trainers, who are actually members of the eco team and SWMRT, who are equipped to conduct training sessions in different areas for the people.
“The BBMP has taken a more long term, sustainable route in handling waste. There are about 600 master trainers, who will soon also be issued ID cards to go conduct sessions around the city. Of course,the BBMP can do more when it comes to advertising this, but initially, a little hand holding is required, and this is what the corporation has managed to do fairly well,” says Dr Sandhya.
Official Take
Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner, health/ solid waste management, tells City Express that the whole project is the BBMP’s ‘baby’, and that the two citizen groups are merely helping them. He also adds that if the central government is able to come up with a method that’s better than the 2-bin-1-bag system, they would welcome it.
Problems with the two way segregation model
There are umpteen problems with two way segregation, says Das. Half the households now don’t even wrap sanitary napkins and diapers, and all of this gets mixed with dry waste, and the dry waste gets contaminated. Dignity of labour is another very important aspect that needs to be considered when it comes to how we dispose our waste. Earlier, even in Bengaluru, women were employed to separate this sanitary waste from the dry waste. “We ourselves have so many taboos around sanitary napkins, so how can we expect someone else to clean it up? When we talk about dignity for Indians, we need to also consider these people. They catch diseases and most often, can’t even pay to get themselves cured,” says Das.