Chokes on us: Mumbai generates 300 crore plastic bags every year…..Geeta Desai
Civic bodys calculation throws up alarming numbers; will penalise societies for flouting rules
Civic bodys calculation throws up alarming numbers; will penalise societies for flouting rules
A Did-You-Know on Mumbai: the city throws up 300 crore plastic bags every year, according a BMC estimate. Add to this hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles, paan masala and tobacco pouches, and food packets, and it gives an idea of an environment disaster Mumbai has been reduced to.
But how did the civic body arrive at the 300-crore figure? A senior civic official explained, The citys population is around 1.25 crore, not taking into account a floating population of 25 lakh. We divided it into 30 lakh families. Let us assume each family uses on an average 20 plastic bags every week. This makes it 80 bags per family per week. Add a few more in terms of weekend and festive season purchases, and the number comes to 1,000 bags per family annually. Now, multiply 1,000 by 30 lakh, and you get an average number of bags used per year.
This is just one part of the waste disposal problem. The city produces 8,550 metric tonnes of garbage daily. Heres the segregation: 5,500 metric tonnes of wet garbage, 500 metric tonnes of dry garbage, 2,500 metric tonnes debris and 50 metric tonnes bio-medical waste. To dispose this, the city only has one dumping ground, at Deonar, which is simply not big enough to handle so much waste.
The civic body has come up with a two-pronged plan to tackle the problem. It has asked the housing societies to segregate garbage into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. Biodegradable waste originates from plants and animal sources, and which can be broken down by other living organisms. It is commonly found in municipal solid waste, food and paper waste, manure, sewage and slaughterhouse waste.
Non-biodegradable waste will not break down (or wont for many years). Examples are plastics, metal and glass. Some dangerous chemicals and toxins are also non-biodegradable, as are plastic grocery bags.
Apart from segregating garbage, the civic body has put emphasis on effective plastic waste disposal. A circular has been issued to all 24 wards by the officer of the additional municipal commissioner (in-charge Solid Waste Management Department), making it mandatory to maintain separate bins for biodegradable, non-biodegradable and wet garbage bins outside housing societies.
A civic official said, We will implement the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. Which means, littering municipal solid waste will be prohibited. We will organise house-to-house collection of garbage through community bins, and collection of waste from slums, hotels, restaurants and offices.
Ward offices have been asked to send out circulars to housing societies, asking them to segregate the waste. Wet waste will be collected daily, while the dry garbage will be collected twice a week or as per the requirement. Plastic waste will be dealt with through the designated NGOs, who specialise in recycling, the official said.
A few BMC officials, such as Subhash Dalvi, who is an engineer in the Survey Department, take extra efforts to curb the use of plastic. Inspired by shopkeepers and street vendors at Vile Parle (East), who refuse to use plastic bags, Dalvi impressed upon vendors at Grant Road vegetable market to follow suit. By saying no to plastic bags, each vendor stands to save around Rs 60,000 annually, he said.
In April this year, the Solid Waste Management Department introduced pilot projects in many areas regarding garbage segregation, with disappointing results in western Mumbai. An assistant municipal commissioner from the western suburbs said, Most housing societies have just not bothered to co-operate. Now, we will implement the rules by slapping notices to the errant societies.
* It is now mandatory for societies to keep separate bins for biodegradable, non-biodegradable and wet garbage