World Environment day today: 5 years on, full segregation of waste at source distant dream

Sandeep Rana

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Chandigarh, June 4

Even as the Municipal Corporation (MC) had launched the “segregation of wet and dry waste at source” with much fanfare on World Environment Day (June 5) five years ago, the project has failed to fetch desired results.

At some places, collectors mix it up: Residents’ body chairman

In some sectors like 43, two-bin vehicles are parked at one place and traditional rehriwallahs collect waste from us and shift it to the vehicles later. We give segregated waste to them, but they mix it up in gunny bags. — Hitesh Puri, Chairman, CRAWFED

60% households segregating waste, claims MC commissioner

It (waste segregation) varies from area to area. Some sectors score nearly perfect while some others are still getting used to the idea. About 60 per cent of the population is giving reasonably segregated waste. — Anindita Mitra, MC Commissioner

Not many people are giving segregated household garbage to the door-to-door waste collectors. At some places, even garbage collectors falter on segregation. Owing to non-segregation, the city not only suffers in the Swachhta ranking survey, but also faces issues in proper waste disposal.

Hitesh Puri, chairman, Chandigarh Residents Associations’ Welfare Federation (CRAWFED), said, “Waste segregation is not satisfactory. There is improvement, but it’s not sufficient. In some sectors like 43, two-bin vehicles are parked at one place and traditional rehriwallahs collect waste from us and shift it to the vehicles later. We give segregated waste to them, but they mix it up in gunny bags. There should be some incentive for collectors segregating waste so as to motivate them.”

RK Garg, president, Second Innings Association, a senior citizens’ body, said, “I think 30 to 40 per cent people in Chandigarh are doing segregation at their houses. Even if it is done, the segregated garbage is not reaching the final disposal site.”

It seems despite awareness drives and challans, many people are yet to get into the habit of segregating waste. As per the MC, the challaning drive was resumed in November last year. On an average, 450 challans are issued in a month. A challan of Rs 231 is issued to households giving mixed garbage to collectors.

When asked about the number of people giving segregating waste in the city, MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra replied, “It varies from area to area. Some sectors score nearly perfect while some others are still getting used to the idea. About 60 per cent of the population is giving reasonably segregated waste.”

She further said continuous awareness activities and intensive challaning were the way forward and the civic body had already embarked on this journey.

It may be recalled that the corporation had started off on the project with a seemingly poor planning in 2017, spending Rs 2.20 crore on distributing green and blue-coloured bins to the households without even having the basic infrastructure like two-bin waste vehicles and disposal system at the waste processing plant. The collectors were also up in arms against the project, especially the MC vehicles.

Residents used the MC bins for purposes other than segregation. A few years later, when the vehicles could be bought and an MoU was signed with the collectors, things have started to move a bit, but there is still a long way to go.