The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) will direct bulk waste generators to manage the solid and wet waste independently so as to reduce the pressure on the civic body and comply with the solid waste management rules.
This will apply to all apartments, hotels, restaurants, choultries and kalyana mantapas in the city each of which generate at least 100 kg of wet waste per day and qualify as bulk waste generators as defined by the SWM rules.
This was stated by the MCC Commissioner, Gurudutt Hegde, on Thursday. He said though there was a resolution passed by the council and a law making it mandatory for bulk waste generators to install a waste recycling and management system, the MCC has not implemented it so far.
This was also an issue that did not get adequate attention in 2020 due to the COVID-19 but the MCC is set to build pressure on the bulk waste generators to establish their own units for recycling waste. Mr. Hegde said some of the apartment complexes in the city have already established such a mechanism and it was functioning smoothly. But there were many who either cited lack of adequate space within their complex or paucity of funds for establishing such a facility. Now with the pourakarmikas stretched to their limits in waste collection and segregation, it had become imperative for the MCC to implement the rule, said Mr. Hegde.
Earlier in the day Mr.Hegde and MCC officials visited a private apartment complex in the city which has installed its own facility for recycling wet waste. The complex generates nearly 200 kg of wet waste daily and it is being recycled and converted to compost and used for gardening purpose.
MCC Health Officer D.G. Nagaraj said the civic body has conducted many meetings with the bulk waste generators and many of them have cited lack of land or delay in technology adoption as the cause. “But we have to keep building pressure so that the waste generated in a specific complex could be recycled in-house to reduce pressure on the corporation.’
The MCC is also toying with the idea of incentivising those implementing recycling plants by way of a reduction in tax or cess whichever was lower. The MCC can bring about a change in the local body rules to give effect to such an initiative in the interest of the city, said Mr.Nagaraj.
The city generates around 450 tonnes of waste daily of which 200 tonnes goes to the recycling plant at Vidyaranyapuram. About 150 to 200 tonnes goes to the landfills and the rest are processed at the zero waste management facilities. If the bulk waste generators comply with the SWM rules, then the burden on the civic body will considerably reduce, according to Dr. Nagaraj.
