Garbage worriers and garbage warriors

A few days before the lockdown began, while returning from the flour mill, I saw Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) garbage auto at one of the street corners. The two garbage collectors were segregating the collected garbage into wet and dry waste, as households had not done their job of segregation and had passed it on to the poor garbage collectors. Segregation by garbage collectors had to be done as the truck transporting waste would not take in mixed waste. Although there are rules specifying that households have to segregate waste, there seems to be certain places in Bangalore were it is not being done accordingly. Also, the BBMP has notified to penalise residents for not segregating waste. Looking at the two garbage collectors, my mind wandered off to people’s attitude towards waste and garbage collectors.

The garbage auto in my neighbourhood collects segregated waste unlike in some parts of Bangalore. Garbage man has divided  his auto into two parts, one for wet and another for dry waste. He stands in dry waste section and collects it, while we dump wet waste directly as this partition is towards the extreme end of the auto. Often, I have noticed that wet waste also had a mix of dry waste like shampoo sachets, toothbrush, bus tickets etc. Additionally, a few neighbours do not segregate their wet waste completely. Many a times, the garbage man yells at them for not segregating waste which has fallen on deaf ears till date. Well, I appreciate these neighbours were at least handing over their waste to the garbage collector rather than dumping it in empty sites or street corners like another neighbour. This particular neighbour feels handing over waste to garbage man is expensive because he charges Rs. 10/month! Even if you are not paying the garbage man he will still collect your waste because nowhere it is mentioned that garbage collector will not collect waste if he is not paid by the house owner. Some neighbours who give money grumble that garbage collectors also earn their salaries and are greedy for more. These households may not have given a thought to how much is the salary of a garbage collector, does he receive it on a regular basis and is it sufficient to survive in a city like Bangalore. This Rs. 10 being paid to the garbage collector has been same from when door to door garbage collection began in Bangalore, roughly 15 years back.  We still pay them the same amount, while prices of all other items have soared in the last decade.

Around three years back, before the garbage auto came into my street, a garbage cart pushed by an old lady (reminding me of my late grandmother) would collect waste. A neighbour living in first floor would throw her waste onto the road when the garbage cart arrived. The poor old lady had to pick it up and then put it in the cart, while other households would directly dump their waste into the cart. While some do not hand over waste, the ones who do, do it in a style!! The neighbour never realized that it was an old lady who was forced to work in spite of her age and that too physical hard labour job, pushing the cart around different streets and the cart gaining weight with entry into each street.  Although, the old lady would request the neighbour not to throw waste from first floor, again it fell on deaf ears. However, today this neighbour makes her way down to the garbage auto because if she happens to throw the waste from first floor, the garbage man will never pick it up, as he is already standing inside his auto and cannot afford to waste time to get off from it.

One family in the neighbourhood used to dispose all their waste into an empty site. Once their child turned a year old, they started handing over waste to the garbage collector. I still wonder what bought in this attitude change. A relative who shifted to Bangalore a couple of years ago, was full on blaming BBMP that they should not have made rules on waste segregation, instead composting at household should have been mandatory. ‘If it is mandatory will you do it?’ did not yield answers from her. When people cannot practice what they preach it is best for them not to suggest. A friend wanted me to have his composting bin which was freely distributed, as he felt I worked on something related to environment! So does it mean people working for conservation should compost and rest of them should not?

Lastly, I have the most hilarious story. It is a known fact that empty sites in Bangalore end up being waste dumps. But in the corner of my street atop a Pongamia tree a black plastic cover with waste was hanging for a couple of months. Someone from top floors must have flung their waste into an empty site which unfortunately landed up on the tree. It was later bought down when BESCOM staff were pruning branches that covered electric lines.

According to a study by T V Ramachandra and others from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2018) per capita waste generation in Bangalore varies between 45.51 – 136.5 g/day of which organic waste is a major portion. If these garbage warriors did not turn up for even a week, can we bear the stink emanating from the waste? Their absence will only turn our houses into garbage yards. 

Waste segregation is very simple, it’s not a rocket science. Just keep two separate bins, one for wet and another for dry, rather than plastic covers for wet waste. Additionally, wet waste bin can be lined with paper to absorb moisture and paper can be discarded along with wet waste. It’s time we realize that we generate waste and need to dispose it off efficiently, otherwise we will end up being in a sea of diseases. Like someone said ‘garbage collectors are the cities doctors’, we need to treat them with respect and think over what would happen in their absence.