The Delhi High Court has sought response from the government and civic bodies here on a plea seeking implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, that entails for segregation of waste at source including household, hotels, restaurants and other waste generators.
Categories of wastes
The Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 states that it is the responsibility of generators to segregate wastes into three categories – wet, dry and hazardous – and handover segregated wastes to authorised ragpickers, waste collectors or local bodies.
Wet wastes are biodegradable, while dry wastes include plastic, paper, metal, wood, etc. Domestic hazardous wastes include diapers, napkins, empty containers of cleaning agents, mosquito repellents, etc.
However, Defence Colony resident Rajeev Suri, in his petition, has claimed that the authorities have failed to implement Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and Solid Waste Management By-laws 2018 notified in January this year.
‘Lackadaisical interest’
“Full implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 was to be completed by April 15, 2018. However, implementation of waste segregation at source has been tardy to say the least,” Mr. Suri’s petition said.
This he said was due to the lackadaisical interest towards implementation of waste segregation at source by citizens of Urban Local Bodies and the Resident Welfare Associations.
Mr. Suri claimed that waste segregation at source is the most efficient way to address the problem of evergrowing quantities of wastes, to overcome the problem of unsegregated wastes reaching landfills containing nondecomposable material, leachates and toxic material contaminating the earth’s crust and water bodies.
Behavioural change
He also said that waste segregation at source requires a behavioural change in citizens, which can only be achieved through the IEC (Information Education Communication) initiatives and the residents and public authorities working at tandem with each other.