Gurugram civic body to lift only segregated waste from November 10

MCG additional commissioner Vaishali Sharma held a meeting with sanitation wing officials and Ecogreen representatives in the corporation’s Sector 34 office on Tuesday and directed them to start proceedings for storing segregated waste in garbage collection vehicles and inform residents accordingly

Starting November 10, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will collect only segregated waste from households in the city, officials said on Tuesday. The corporation has also issued directions to its sanitation wing and Ecogreen to make citizens aware in the next 15 days that they need to segregate waste at their homes.

The segregation of waste is also aimed at converting wet waste into compost and recycling dry waste to the maximum possible extent so that the waste load carried to the overburdened Bandhwari landfill can be reduced. (HT Archive)

Ecogreen is MCG’s concessionaire for door-to-door collection of waste in the city.

The officials said the decision was taken to ensure strict compliance to the waste management rules.

“Segregation of garbage is an important and necessary task. There are various types of waste generated in homes, with wet and dry waste being the primary ones. It is the responsibility of residents to separate the waste into these categories and hand it over to the garbage collectors separately. From November 10, mixed waste will not be accepted by the MCG. So, citizens should make the process of segregating waste a habit,” said Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, municipal commissioner who took the decision on Monday.

Acting on Ahuja’s directions, MCG additional commissioner Vaishali Sharma held a meeting with sanitation wing officials and Ecogreen representatives in the corporation’s Sector 34 office on Tuesday and directed them to start proceedings for storing segregated waste in garbage collection vehicles and inform residents that mixed waste will not be accepted after November 10.

“Ecogreen representatives have been directed to ensure that wet and dry waste is collected separately from each household. For this, each garbage collection vehicle should have two different sections to store such waste so as to ensure they do not get mixed. They have been asked to make these changes within the next 15 days,” said Sharma.

On December 25 last year, the MCG observed ‘zero waste day’ for the first time. On a zero waste day, only wet waste is collected from households. Since mid-March this year, the corporation has been observing zero waste days every Tuesday. The officials said that residents have been given six months of training in segregation of waste, hence it was decided to carry it out on a full-time basis ahead of the Swachh Survekshan 2022. ‘Kachra alag karo’ (separate waste) is one of the campaigns in the upcoming cleanliness survey, they said.

The MCG officials further said that the segregation of waste is also aimed at converting wet waste into compost and recycling dry waste to the maximum possible extent so that the waste load carried to the overburdened Bandhwari landfill can be reduced. There are around 2.5 million tonnes of legacy waste at the Bandhwari landfill.

The additional commissioner also said if Ecogreen vehicles come to the transfer station with mixed waste, then action will be taken against the concessionaire under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Ecogreen officials said that around 380 garbage collection vehicles are equipped with compartments to store different types of waste.

“In pursuance of the directions issued by MCG officials during a meeting with Ecogreen on Tuesday, we will run a campaign to spread awareness on waste segregation and inform residents about the November 10 deadline. The MCG has also informed us about the penalties if mixed waste is found at transfer stations, and the same will be conveyed to our staff,” said Sanjeev Sharma, spokesperson, Ecogreen.

Residents said that the corporation should launch an awareness campaign on the waste segregation. “MCG should issue an advisory on social media as well as on RWA WhatsApp groups first informing residents about the November 10 deadline and explain about the various types of dry and wet waste,” said Dhruv Bansal, spokesperson, Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC), an umbrella body of RWAs in the city.