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.
