Managing your waste well? Mumbai civic body set to reward you

The housing societies will have to segregate and process their waste in composting units for a month, after which they will be judged

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to conduct waste management competitions among housing societies in each ward to encourage more citizens to segregate their waste. Fifteen housing societies from Parel registered in the competition on Independence Day.

Meanwhile, a similar project has already started in the G (North) ward, which has Dadar, Mahim, and Shivaji Park in its jurisdiction. (HT)

The housing societies will have to segregate and process their waste in composting units for a month, after which they will be judged. The civic body is yet to decide on the prizes.

The move comes after civic chief Ajoy Mehta’s new order to not pick up waste that is not segregated from October 2. Housing societies that produce more than 100 kg of waste daily or have an area above 20,000 square meters will have to segregate waste and install waste processing units in their compounds.

The civic body will also conduct presentations for the societies on public holidays to teach citizens various waste management techniques. “As Parel sees some of the most famous Ganapti pandals, we have also convinced some of the mandals in the area to take up an environment-friendly theme and promote waste segregation during 10 day Ganapati festival,” said VP Mote, assistant municipal commissioner, F south.

Meanwhile, a similar project has already started in the G (North) ward, which has Dadar, Mahim, and Shivaji Park in its jurisdiction. The ward has appointed 35 teams to undertake daily door-to-door campaigns and inspect housing societies. If they are found without waste compost pits, the societies are invited to a lecture about waste composting and segregation.

The move comes after a dumping ground fire and is meant to reduce the amount of waste going to the city’s landfills daily. BMC data shows that only 48% of housing societies in the city segregate waste daily, while around 7,993 metric tonnes of unprocessed waste is dumped at the Mulund, Deonar and Kanjurmarg grounds. According to the recent cleanliness survey 2017, Mumbai ranked 29th in waste management. BMC aims to reduce the waste sent to the dumping ground by 10%-15% in the next three months.