The journey of the waste we produce
Bengaluru city, produces about 3500 tons of solid waste every day. This solid waste, includes both dry and wet waste. Rapid growth in population and increase in the standard of living is the reason for huge generation of waste. The collection, storage, transportation and processing of waste has become a major problem for the Bengaluru municipality. Besides, the solution to manage the entire city’s waste is segregation, which starts from homes and is carried on even in the waste management plants.
The solid waste is segregated mainly into two; dry and wet waste. Wet waste includes fruit and vegetable waste, food waste and other easily decomposable waste while dry waste includes plastic, paper, rubber and other non-biodegradable products. Since 9th September, BBMP has made it mandatory that only segregated waste is collected from households.
Before this order according to the official notice by BBMP, “The mixed waste was disposed in the processing units which couldn’t be processed completely”. Management of this waste in the city, becomes a problem because the scientific processing of mixed waste is difficult.
In Kannahalli waste management plant, mixed waste is sorted 3 times before processing into tinier particles. The waste is first processed into minor particles of 200 mm, 100mm,35mm, 16mm and then finally into 4 mm sized particles. Particles bigger than 4mm, are rejected and burned in large heaps. Waste rejected is usually plastic, and burning these cause harmful smoke to be released into the atmosphere.
The already segregated waste is segregated again, before loading it into trucks and sending it to two different plants for wet and dry waste. The wet waste is sent to Seegahalli and dry waste is sent to Bellahalli. The wet waste sent to Seegahalli is processed and made into compost. The rejected waste which mainly consists of paper, is dumped into the landfill nearby.
Once the waste in the landfill reaches 25 feet high, they plan to cover it up and build a park on it. The dry waste sent to Bellahalli is processed and dumped into landfills. Recycling of recyclable products still remains undone in both plants.
