Gurugram: Still not segregating waste? Fines now for eateries, PGs

Gurugram: The municipal corporation on Saturday issued challans of Rs 5,000 each to five paying guest (PGs) accommodations and rest houses for handing out unsegregated waste to collectors.
So far, the civic body had been only challaning vehicles carrying mixed waste and bulk waste generators (BWGs) such as hotels and hospitals for flouting the norms.
On Saturday, a dhaba owner was also fined Rs 5,000. Since November 20, MCG has made it mandatory for all to segregate waste before giving it to the collectors. Teams of the corporation have been working on the ground to apprise residents about waste segregation and collectors are refusing mixed waste.
"So far, we had been imposing challans only on bulk generators. But, our focus now is on commercial units, especially PGs, hotels and restaurants that generate 50kg or more waste a day. We have stopped accepting mixed waste from residents. So, we are not issuing any challans to them now," said Naresh Kumar, the MCG joint commissioner for the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Officials said that since people had started to segregate waste, more composting units were required for wet waste. The officials said that though composting pits at the Carterpuri material recovery facility (MRF) had been opened to accommodate wet waste, the facility was not operational yet.
The MRFs at Ullawas and South City-2 have also not resumed operations yet after the residents there protested against the facilities.
Ever since the mandatory waste segregation was announced, there were a few instances of violence against the collectors.
"Initially, when we started the drive, there were people who were not giving segregated waste. But since then, the response has remarkably improved. It is because when we go for waste collection, the NGO teams that the MCG has roped in accompany us and apprise the residents about the importance of sorting garbage. The types of waste are explained to them so that they know about dry and wet waste," said Ishrar Ahmad, a waste collector.
Last year too, MCG had announced that only segregated waste will be collected from November 11. However, 100% waste segregation could not be achieved. A survey done by the MCG's solid waste management concessionaire Ecogreen stated that only 36% of households in the city were segregating their waste.