Initiative to recycle waste hangs fire in Bangalore

A community project to recycle waste, which could have been a model for solid waste management in the city, has remained on paper for the last eight years. The Vijayanagara Nagarika Vedike’s proposal to recycle solid waste from 300 houses in Vijayanagar, which received Central funding, is yet to take off for want of land.

The Rs. 9.5-lakh project had got Rs. 4.75 lakh as the first instalment under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2009. However, the amount remains unspent.

With the project delayed, residents in and around Vijayanagar and Govindarajanagar continue to send the solid waste to the landfill. Worse still, piles of garbage are a common feature in this area.

“Had our project taken off, we would have been locally processing waste and not sending it to the landfill,” said T. Ramu, general secretary of the vedike, a residents’ welfare association. Apart from the amount sanctioned from the Centre, Mr. Ramu has mobilised around Rs. 20,000 under the community participation fund to run the project.

He said the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was yet to give them land to run the project. Although the BBMP had allotted vacant land at Marenahalli, the civic body, in December 2011, decided to take back the land, reportedly after complaints from the residents nearby.

This was after several rounds of garbage segregation training sessions were held for residents in the Central Excise Layout at Marenahalli and civic body workers. “Our entire project was ready to take off. We had even planned on how residents will be involved in waste segregation. But the project came to a halt abruptly after the BBMP said that we could not use the Marenahalli land,” Mr. Ramu said.

Members of the vedike failed to get any response to the repeated letters written to the civic body. Following this, they approached Councillor of the Govindarajanagar ward Mohan Kumar in March 2013, who later assured them that the boulevard land opposite the CPWD quarters along the Service Road would be handed over for the project.

The project, if implemented, would help in ensuring that 300 kg of wet waste collected from 300 houses in the Govindarajanagar ward are recycled and converted into manure every day.