Mumbai: Is Waste segregation actually a waste of time?

Mumbai: It is high time the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) practices what it preaches especially with regards to its ‘waste segregation policy.’ The civic body which is imposing hefty fines on citizens for their failure to segregate waste as ‘dry and wet’ is shockingly itself, mixing the waste at the dumping ground. Adding to all this, the civic body has also failed to create awareness among the citizens as to what should be thrown in wet waste and what is dry.

And most surprising is the stand of civic chief Ajoy Mehta, who wants citizens to be ‘more civilised’ and segregate waste despite his workers mixing the segregated wastes in front of the citizens. In other words, the BMC seems to have adopted double standards in the implementation of this policy as the civic body, on one hand, compels citizens to segregate the waste and on the other hand, the municipal corporation is actually mixing up the segregated waste during its disposal at dumping sites.

A resident of a posh area in Chembur said, “Few months before we received a communication from the BMC asking us to segregate waste as dry and wet at our households only. I being the secretary of our society communicate the message with the members. We were excited and happy that finally, the civic body has taken a call to treat waste.”

“Accordingly, we had asked our sweepers to ensure that waste is thrown in two separate bins one for wet and the other for dry since the BMC introduced two separate dumpers/trucks to collect the segregated wastes. For the first few days, we could see the dumper for wet waste picking up only wet waste and the dry one (which comes every alternate day) picking up dry waste. But now what happens is the dumper for wet waste picks both the wastes together by mixing them. So there is no point of us mixing it. Moreover, even if they pick the wastes separately but ultimately they have to mix the wastes in the dumping ground,” the resident added.

Apart from this, the BMC seems to have implemented this policy in a haste as not every citizen is aware as to what would constitute wet waste and what can be labelled as dry waste. It would not be wrong to say that majority of citizens are unaware or uninformed over this ‘mystery’ of wet and dry waste. And over all this, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta expects Mumbaikars to be more civilised.

Speaking exclusively with the Free Press Journal, Mehta said, “The whole world knows the difference between wet waste and dry waste. One cannot claim to have any knowledge on this issue. We have to now learn to be good citizens. This is part of the citizen’s duty. Several ads have been displayed in this regard and people are really enthusiastic in implementing this policy. Even children know the difference between the two.”

Countering the stand of the civic chief, the opposition leader Ravi Raja from the Congress Party said the BMC has failed to implement the policy in a proper manner.

“I believe the BMC has implemented this policy haphazardly. Instead of implementing it like this the civic body should have had launched awareness campaigns and made people familiar with this scheme. They could have had taken at least a year’s time to inform the people about this policy and educate the citizens of the difference between the wet waste and dry waste,” Ravi Raja said.

Soon, new dumpers that will collect dry and wet waste together, without mixing it

With the citizens slamming the BMC for its double standards over the waste segregation policy, the civic body has decided to introduce new dumpers/trucks, which can pick up wet and dry waste together without mixing it. In other words, the civic body has proposed to purchase dumpers which would have separate sections for wet, dry and E-waste.

Confirming the news, civic chief Ajoy Mehta said, “We believe there must be one dumper which can pick up the waste together without mixing it. So we thought of introducing dumpers with separate sections in it for wet waste, dry waste and also a separate section for the E-waste.” “As of now, we are in the process of finalising the tenders for such dumpers. The tenders for such dumpers would be floated in the coming months and soon the contracts would be awarded,” Mehta added.