The wet and dry garbage segregation done diligently by housing societies and Swach waste pickers is being carelessly mixed by the civic conservancy staff even now. Hindustan Times in the month of September this year had done an investigation and revealed a ground reality that in many wards, dry and wet waste segregated is being carelessly mixed by the civic conservancy staff and dumped in landfills.
While Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) then chief of Solid waste management department chief Suresh Jagtap had assured to take action in this regards, things however have not changed even now.
When confronted on the issue, Dnyaneshwar Molak, solid waste management department head has accepted the fact that the dry and wet garbage is mixed when the vehicle reaches the dumping ramp, however, adding that the situation is better than it was earlier.
Molak said, “We have issued strict instructions to all the workers in the department to keep a different vehicle for the collection of dry and wet waste in all the wards in the city. Currently, we have a total of 100 garbage collecting vehicles out of which half of them are dedicated to collect only wet waste and the other half collects only the dry waste from across the city.”
{{/usCountry}}Molak said, “We have issued strict instructions to all the workers in the department to keep a different vehicle for the collection of dry and wet waste in all the wards in the city. Currently, we have a total of 100 garbage collecting vehicles out of which half of them are dedicated to collect only wet waste and the other half collects only the dry waste from across the city.”
{{/usCountry}}“PMC is doing the best in their capacity to improve the situation; however, it will take some time to completely streamline the process improvising the entire waste collection system of the city,” said Molak.
A Swach waste picker requesting anonymity, said, “We collect garbage from door-to-door in residential societies from across the city. After we segregate the waste, we then load it in the PMC vehicles which is then carried it to the dumping ramps. However, while the vehicle goes to the ramps, it collects waste from the different locations in between which is why the dry and wet waste is mixed.”