City has witnessed a drop of 4% in generation of waste: BMC

Waste generated in the city every day has dropped by 4 per cent, or around 300 metric tonnes per day, claimed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). This, the civic body claims, has been achieved due to several measures taken by it from making it compulsory for housing societies and bulk generators like hotels to segregate and compost waste.

As per the data available with the Solid Waste Management (SWM), the daily generation of waste in the city has come down from 7200 MT to 6900 MT.

A senior official from the SWM said that the number of bulk generators has come down with many processing waste at their premises. The civic body has initiated action against 884 establishments in the city for failing to start waste management at source. On January, 39 bulk generators, mostly from Borivali area, were dragged to court.

"Following civic chief's order, the ward officers had submitted monthly plan on waste management in their respective areas and how to implement them. The plan worked, bringing down waste generation," said the official.

The civic body had identified 3374 bulk generators, of which 1672 have started processing waste at their premises. "Many bulk generators like hotels and commercial complexes have started waste processing and this has helped in bringing down an overall quantity," said the official. He added that they had taken against housing societies and commercial establishment in the city for not processing waste within their premises and collected Rs 33.5 lakh till December end.

According to an official from the SWM, there are societies who have a genuine problem in starting waste processing within their premises. "Space crunch and financial issues are major hurdles faced by many societies in adopting the process, "said an official the SWM department. He added that the civic body is planning to set up a common waste composting centre.

Around two years ago, the BMC had made compulsory for bulk waste generators to dispose of garbage in their premises only. As per the BMC, residential buildings or commercial units with an area of more than 20,000 sqm or generating over 100 kg waste every day, have to compost waste at source. The civic body took the step after its all landfill reached the saturation point.