The Greater Chennai Corporation’s ambitious plan to go zero waste by the end of the year looks distant now.
The civic body, which is in the process of creating several solid waste management infrastructure facilities to clear legacy, dry and wet waste and construction debris, has been able to achieve only 42% of source segregation as of now, even while succeeding in collecting 95% of household waste through door-to-door operations using two private conservancy agencies.
The lack of cooperation from residents, commercial establishments and bulk waste generators (BWG) has stymied the civic body’s agenda to achieve 100% source segregation. The city, on average, generates around 5,000 tonnes of waste daily, comprising wet and dry waste.
A senior official of the Corporation said unless there was cooperation from all stakeholders, zero waste management would only remain on paper. Despite having the provision to penalise those failing to segregate garbage under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, the civic body is facing difficulties in implementing it fully as it looks to be a politically sensitive issue, a senior official added.
The Solid Waste Management Bylaws, 2019, also stated it was the responsibility of the generator of wastes to cooperate with the municipal authority concerned by avoiding littering and source segregating the wastes.
While the bylaws clearly give authority, civic officials cited the inability of local officials, including conservancy inspectors, to penalise violators, besides issuing hollow warnings. The official also complained about the return of single-use plastic, the usage of which has been banned.
Taking into consideration the sensitivity of penalising individual households, the Corporation is finalising a strategy to make at least BWGs, who number around 2,000, to fall in line towards 100% source segregation. BWGs are those places which generate more than 100 kg of waste per day.
The civic body has appointed 23 service providers for wet waste processing, four for dry waste processing and nine for processing both kinds, and has published the details on the Corporation website. BWGs, which lack in-house waste processing, should utilise these service providers.
The official said the last time the civic body tried to crack the whip on using and throwing one time plastic waste was in November, but this was stopped midway owing to the Assembly election. He said during that period, the civic body conducted more than 4.5 lakh inspections/raids, and seized 318 metric tonnes of banned plastic. They also collected fines of ₹1.3 lakh.
