BENGALURU: With the disappointing performance of the city in the Swachh Sarvekshan rankings, the buzz about the much-publicised government initiative about composting wet waste at home also seems to have died down.The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) decided in November to create a database of people in the city who are taking up composting of wet waste at home.
They circulated the links on social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, urging people to register themselves for the initiative. The database was created in the hope of boosting the city’s rankings in the Swachh Sarvekshan. The survey results were out in 2019, in which the city was ranked 194 out of 425 Indian cities.
A look at the figures recorded by BBMP shows that the move died a quick death. Only 1,126 individual homes and 978 bulk generators were registered as composters in the whole of Bengaluru. Bulk generators refer to marriage halls, apartment complexes, tech parks, etc. “The number of those who are practising composting are actually higher than the recorded figure. People have not registered themselves on these links,” said a BBMP official from the Solid Waste Management cell.
“When we did a sample survey, going from door to door in Yelahanka and Dasarahalli zones, several citizens were found to be carrying out on-site composting. However, we did not publicise the links to register people after the survey got over,” the official added.
The civic agency now plans to publicise the registration again, once the model code of conduct for elections is lifted. “This will be done in tandem with finalising of contractors for collection of segregated waste. The composting database along with segregated waste collection will help reduce waste management load on BBMP,” the official added.
NS Ramakanth, founding member of Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), said, “This data is not showing the right figure. It is actually easy to get data through on-ground information collection.” According to Ramakanth, there are at least 40,000 people living in independent homes who have taken up organic terrace gardening.
Activists have also been asking BBMP to depute health inspectors to find out who is doing individual house composting in all 198 wards. “As for apartments, we have been suggesting implementation of a waiver of garbage cess, which is added to the property tax collection done by BBMP,” Ramakanth said. “This waiver will encourage more complexes that fall under bulk generator category to take up composting,” he added.
“Awareness has grown about it. Due to elections, we cannot do an on-ground survey. We can do sample test checks to see if those who have registered are still doing composting,” said Randeep D, Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management), adding that “If the numbers are not satisfactory, we can consider a ward-level survey to ratify the figures after elections. We can also publicise it more.”