Mumbai: 567 societies & business units face cases for not treating waste

To push waste segregation and processing at source, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has initiated prosecution against 962 bulk waste generators – housing societies and commercial establishments – and also dragged around 567 to court over non-compliance.

The action may be far from satisfactory considering that nearly 2,200 bulk waste generators are yet to start waste processing at source.

Last year, the BMC had gone aggressively against housing societies and commercial establishment in the city for not processing waste within their premises. But, so far only 1159 bulk generators have started waste processing.

As per the the data available with the Solid Waste Management (SWM) of BMC, 2,206 bulk generators are still dumping waste without segregating and processing with maximum bulk generators are found in Andheri (west) and Malad area.

According to official from the SWM of BMC, there are societies who have genuine problem in starting waste processing within their premises. "Many of the societies are having space crunch while several have financial issues,"said an official the SWM department of BMC. He added that the civic body is working on common waste composting centre.

However, around 270 bulk generators have sought time to start waste segregation and composting at their premises. Last year, the BMC had made compulsory for bulk waste generators to dispose of garbage in their premises only. As per the BMC, residential building or commercial units which is having space of over 20,000 sq metre or generating over 100 kg waste every day, have to carry out composting at their own place. The civic body took the step after its all landfill reached to saturation.

In September 2017, the civic body had identified around 4,780 bulk generators across the city. However, this number gradually decreased. Civic official claimed that many of the started waste processing within their premises. "Many of the societies have brought down waste generation by taking a number of measures and that is why number of bulk generators have come down," said the official.

The civic body asked them to set up vermi-composting facility within one more month or that have to face action under the MRTP Act. Societies failed to set up vermi-composting facilities at the designated place in their premises, the BMC initiated prosecution against them. Despite many societies stared waste processing at their premises, overall waste generations remain around 7,500 metric tonnes per day.