Chandigarh MC to rope in private player to process bio-medical waste
Even though the Chandigarh MC had pushed for collection of segregated waste nearly four years ago, it was only four-five months ago when it provided for collection of household generated bio-medical waste. Its more than 500 door-to-door garbage collection vehicles are now equipped with dedicated bins for collection of bio-medical waste.
Biomedical waste, such as sanitary napkins and diapers, which pose a grave hazard to the environment and people’s health, has largely been dumped without processing in the city.
Now, the municipal corporation (MC) will rope in a private player to process all bio-medical waste being generated at homes.
MC commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “We have taken certificate from the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) for the company solely responsible for processing the entire bio-medical waste of the city. Bio-medical waste generated in households will also be processed by this company, Alliance Envirocare.”
As per estimates, Chandigarh generates around 750kg of bio-medical waste per day. The household bio-medical waste will be incinerated at the company’s industrial area-based facility.
Even though the MC had pushed for collection of segregated waste nearly four years ago, it was only four-five months ago when it provided for collection of household generated bio-medical waste. Its more than 500 door-to-door garbage collection vehicles are now equipped with dedicated bins for collection of bio-medical waste.
Earlier, the waste was collected with other solid waste, and dumped at the Dadumajra dumping site without any requisite processing, thereby causing environmental pollution.
“After MC started collecting bio-medical waste separately from other solid waste, we had also initiated its processing by using incinerators. But these are much smaller than the requirement and sufficient to handle the complete processing,” Mitra said.
The MC will submit the agenda on the same before MC General House meeting on July 29. The processing will cost MC around ₹96 lakh per annum.
Onus on households to segregate
The MC had started door-to-door garbage collection from its own vehicles, around 540 in number, last year in January. The vehicles have four bins to collect different types of waste.
There are four types of solid waste including, dry, wet, hazardous and sanitary waste. As per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, all households have to segregate their waste.
The onus of segregation at source lies with the household and door-to-door waste collectors. People have to segregate waste before giving it to waste collectors, and they in turn have to deposit it in the segregated form.
“We have recently conducted training session for sanitation workers, which particularly focused on collecting segregated waste,” said Mitra.
The MC will also soon step up its awareness campaign for households to promote waste segregation at source. Pamphlets will be distributed to every household regarding the same. Earlier, the MC had roped in residents’ welfare associations and market welfare association to encourage people to segregate.
Along with awareness campaign, the MC will also aggressively pursue penalising households, which don’t segregate waste at source. “After analysing the pattern of waste being collected, we have zeroed down on individual households, which are not giving segregated waste. The success of the waste management process depends heavily on people segregating waste at source,” said Mitra.
The fine for non-segregation of waste at source ranges from ₹232 to ₹11,576 per default depending upon the category of the unit.