After eight years, Corp may resume door-to-door waste collection soon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a gap of almost eight years, plans are afoot to resume door-to-door waste collection in the capital. The decision comes in the wake of growing complaints regarding the source-level waste management programme rolled out by the city corporation. Ever since the shutting down of the Vilappilsala waste treatment plant, the civic body came up with a decentralised waste management initiative with the concept of disposing waste at the source. 

As part of the initiative, kitchen bins and pipe compost units were distributed among the households. However, the plan failed due to lack of maintenance and support from the service providers. The state capital generates an average of 353 tonnes of waste every day. 

The new council plans to resume door-to-door waste collection on a pilot basis. A senior official of the corporation said the civic body is gearing up to invite expression of interest from service providers who are willing to collect solid waste. The civic body has decided to sign Kudumbashree Mission to ensure proper segregation and handing over of household waste to interested parties. The project will be started on a pilot basis. 

“Several parties have come forward expressing interest to collect waste. They are ready to collect food waste free of cost. We will soon invite an expression of interest to officially rope in multiple agencies. We held discussions with Kudumbashree Mission and councillors for starting door-to-door waste collection. Now the discussions with the representatives of the residents association are on. We will soon roll out the programme,” said the official. 

In the absence of a proper disposal mechanism, illegal waste collection has become rampant in many parts of the city. According to officials, the initiative would offer a livelihood for many women. The plan is to deploy five to 10 Kudumbashree workers for waste collection. 

“Illegal waste collection is thriving and they don’t segregate waste properly. Kudumbashree was handling household waste and following the shutdown of the Vilappilsala plant, many workers became jobless. We will be able to utilise them for the job. We are also planning to recruit more people based on demand. We plan to rope in a minimum of 2,500 households from each ward for the programme,” an official said. 

“Collection of non-biodegradable waste alone will not benefit the Kudumbashree workers as many residents are not interested in such a service. If we agree to take biodegradable waste also, more people would be interested. We will be dividing each ward into clusters and the plan is to include more households for the programme with the help of ward councillors and residents association,” the official added.

Failed  efforts
The civic body came up with a decentralised waste management initiative. However, the plan failed due to lack of maintenance and support from the service providers