Segregate your waste by August 1 or let it stink

Noida: From August 1, the agency deputed to collect waste from households in city will stop collecting unsegregated garbage from housing societies. Noida Authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheswari on Thursday directed AG Enviro Infra projects Pvt. Ltd to pick up waste only if households segregate dry and wet waste at source.
“Instructions have been issued to ensure strict compliance of the order. We request the residents’ groups to cooperate with us,” Maheswari said.
The firm stand of the authority could spell trouble for residential blocks and housing societies that have been providing mixed waste to the agency during door-to-door garbage collection. Also, the task of segregating waste at source was weakened during the lockdown when staff engaged in door-to-door collection was not allowed inside societies and residents had to provide garbage at a common point.
Yogendra Sharma, president of federation of Noida residents’ welfare association, said, “A lot of residents’ groups have revived the exercise. But yes, there will be hiccups during the first 15 days of the system. We are circulating messages and asking members to spread awareness.”
Giriraj Bahediya, a resident of Assotech Windsor Court in Sector 78 and a member of the city’s 7X welfare team, said, “We are thinking of different strategies to deal with the issue. For dry waste such as plastic, a common bin will be kept on every floor or block. It has a shelf life and also doesn’t stink. Hence, it will not inconvenience anybody. To collect wet waste, we will allot a door-to-door agent who will also pick up the dry waste from the common point.”
He added that this is an initial plan and gradually, residents would be asked to keep two separate bins at home.
While residents’ groups are busy finalising a strategy, the agency is up against a challenge of a different kind. One of its senior managers who supervises the waste management project said that while societies would get used to the idea, creating awareness in the 67 villages would be very difficult. “Due to Covid, we cannot organise mass gatherings or street plays. We have to find a way to educate and inform people with lockdown restrictions in place,” he said.
Noida has been generating moe than 900 tonne of waste per day. While 40% of the waste comes from commercial operations, residential societies and the 67 villages both account for 30% each. The agency has to dedicate almost 40% to 50% of its manpower to sort out dry and wet waste in these villages, the manager told TOI. Noida Authority has been pushing for waste segregation at source for a year now. It had roped in the agency on October 24, 2019 and awarded it a long-term contract to collect, transport and dispose of the waste to the landfill site in Sector 145 in a scientific manner.
The value of contract was pegged at about Rs 307 crore and the payment is to be released as per the set milestones.