Bring back garbage bins, say residents

With Tiruchi corporation removing garbage bins, it has now become a common sight to see waste piling up on road sides.

The demand of reintroduction of garbage bins has resurfaced in the city even as garbage keeps accumulating by the roadsides and at street corners,

Until 2017 and 2018, the residents used to relegate the domestic waste including vegetable waste and food leftovers in the garbage bins placed by the Tiruchi Corporation at various locations. The daily waste generated in the commercial establishments, restaurants, hotels and marriage halls was also dumped in the garbage bins. There were about 1,172 garbage bins in the city. The trucks operated by the Corporation would visit the designated places every morning and evening to move the garbage to the Ariyamangalam dump yard.

When the City Corporation rolled out the initiative of door-to-door collection of waste, there was a considerable impact. Subsequently, the civic body started testing the method of removing garbage bins in the city, with the announcement that the residents and commercial establishments should hand over the waste only to the sanitary workers. It also introduced a spot-fine system to those violating the rules.

Though a section of the people are accustomed to the system, there are others who still prefer to discard domestic and non-domestic waste in garbage bins. The residents say that in a big city like Tiruchi, it is not possible to avoid dumping of waste on streets. They complain that the garbage collectors pay poor attention to remove waste on the street corners. It often leads to a pile up.

Upset over the inefficiency in the garbage cleaning management system, the residents have begun to demand the reintroduction of garbage bins. They bat for simultaneous methods of garbage removal trough door-to-door collection and placement of garbage bins.

“It is quite common to see piling of garbage at various street corners. In the absence of garbage bins, the residents discard waste at their will. It has now become imperative for the Corporation to place garbage bins so that the waste collection could be carried out in an organised manner,” says N. Jamaludeen, a civic activist.