It was June of 2007, we had just moved into our apartment complex. The builder was working through the construction (delay and) mess and (we) residents had just started moving in. The structure was just about stable, iron rods, broken concrete and leaky pipes littered the landscape but we (also) quickly had to deal with solid waste generated in our apartments. The Bangalore development authority was busy changing its name to BBMP and had no where established any modicum of services. Moreover, I have not been able to procure the BBMP muncipal plan on waste disposal till date. It is April 2011 and till date there is NO-water supply and NO-sewage connection to the area from BBMP.
Bangalore Solid waste management functions broadly in the following manner. The BBMP announces call for tenders (for each wards); winning bidder is usually a locally politically powerful personality. Winning bidder then arranges truck owners, who then arranges drivers and they employ two to three helpers. Residential garbage, in some localities, is picked by workers (called *-karmikas) who then give it to local auto/tempo [not sure if they are employed by the winning bidder or the BBMP via a separate bid] who then gives it to the truck. At times truck itself comes to delivery point and picks up the garbage. Money given to the bidder is not typically spent on resources required.
The winning bidder is then supposed to take the garbage to BBMP Dodhaballapur landfill. Typically no monitoring is done and garbage is dumped at local lakes, empty plots and along with construction debris on lake beds. There are no emission norms for burning garbage at a landfill or on an empty plot or a lake bed.
In general efficiency is low because money for the work in contract is pocketed and not used to collect waste. This is further enhanced by the (view or) fact that there is not that much money in household solid waste. This discourages private players entering independently to make the system more efficient at collection.
Given the above, local garbage contractors would take our garbage and dump it in the next empty plot or nearby Bellandur lake (or if lazy lake bed). I even blogged about it in an earlier post. This is when our association hired Waste Management Solutions. They had only one condition and that was: garbage had to be segregated. Black bag– all kitchen waste and Non-black bag– all non-kitchen waste. They are still at it at our complex.
In our ongoing efforts to understand the waste industry, on a sunny march Saturday we (Sharad and I) met up with Helen Govindaraj and Prema of Waste Management Solutions. The “company” is a registered NGO and has permission to collect/dispose waste from Pollution control board. Its main tasks are to: collect waste from companies and apartment complexes (largely household waste); segegrate waste at Hoskote landfill; compost and sell recyclable waste to companies; and awareness creation plus training (housekeeping staff, helpers, waste handlers) in handling solid waste.
They employ 150 people (mainly ragpickers). It is run by Helen and Prema. They own/rent a total of 7 Trucks and collect 3-4 tons of solid waste per day. The costs include:- truck (movement+ maintenance) 60%; staff salary (20%); land rental miscellaneous (20%) and revenue: charge customers maintenance fee, sell segregated material (600 Rs per day). They do not have any grants (typical of many social enterprises).
Operations start with collecting segregated waste (Kitchen waste and other waste) from companies in ITPL; residents at Palm meadows; and other apartment complexes. The waste is then (locally) primarily segregated in the truck itself. Compostable material in one corner and plastic bags + rest in another corner. At their Hoskote facility: garbage is carefully segregated piece by piece. Recyclable stuff is sold off ; Facility in Madurai takes bottles/tetra packs to make plastic sheets + Sahas takes e-waste + local company takes plastic bits to make roads+ glass,iron, steel sent to respective recyclers. Rest is dumped/burned in a local pit that they have. They do composting and are able to sell manure.
Helen and Prema were not clear on how and where to expand. They did however have one short aim. They would like to get to 30-40 tons of waste-collection per day. They have not done proper costing of the business and did not think of revenue from processing of waste themselves.
Helen can be reached at 9845574929. The company can help your apartment complex with regard to solid waste management. It could be for a large function or on a daily basis. All you need to do is to segregate your waste.
