The city Corporation’s segregated dry waste collection hubs, which had won much appreciation from the public for its convenience and utility, have failed to expand beyond its initial phase. Though it was proposed to put up such collection hubs in all the hundred wards, only four such hubs have been opened, more than one-and-a- half years after the first one was opened at Sasthamangalam.
As there is a shortage of workers to be deployed here, the hubs that were supposed to function round-the-clock now remain closed during night. For the new council that has taken charge and the health standing committee that is going to be formed, the problem of the waste collection hubs could be the one to focus on immediately.
“The hubs were very popular right from the beginning. Hundreds of people used to arrive with segregated waste through the day. Though a proposal for hundred such hubs in the city was submitted, it did not take off after the COVID-19 crisis hit and, later, with the local body elections too coming up and the administrative panels taking charge. It has to be revived as we got a lot of positive feedback from the public regarding these hubs,” said a Corporation official.
Positive response
The first such waste-collection hub in the city was launched in June 2019 at Sasthamangalam. The hub made it easy for the public to hand over segregated non-biodegradable waste. The hub has six compartments with top-loading facilities for segregated depositing of glass, paper, footwear, bags, plastic, broken glass pieces, cloth, and metal waste.
The four hubs located in the Sasthamangalam and Palayam areas are still functioning. A sanitation worker is posted at the Sasthamangalam hub for managing the depositing of waste and clearing of the compartments. However, the other hubs do not have permanent staff posted, and are cleared at regular intervals when the compartments overflow.
In a city that does not have waste bins, the waste-collection hubs were seen as a useful model to ensure segregated collection of various kinds of waste, which are then handed over to recycling agencies. The hubs were launched after the civic body’s periodic collection of various kinds of waste was found to be popular with the public. The health wing of the Corporation had seen it as a way to reduce dumping of waste in public spaces, Awareness campaigns about segregated waste collection were also launched along with this.
