Mumbai: BMC starts collecting wet & dry waste across all 24 wards after pilot-project success

Mumbai: After the success of pilot projects at Worli and Khar, the BMC has now started collection of dry and wet waste separately in all the 24 administrative wards across the city.

Around 45 routes exclusively designated for selective societies will collect wet waste daily. A dry waste will be collected as per the requirement of the locality, said the civic official.

The BMC has prepared an action plan to improve waste management in the city by 2030. But it was noticed that the waste segregated by citizens gets mixed in the only compactor brought to collect both dry and wet waste.

As per the solid waste management (SWM) rules, 2016, the civic body is required to achieve waste management at source. So to encourage housing societies to 100 percent waste segregation the BMC implemented a pilot project in two civic wards from November 15.

West and dry waste segregation

"The pilot project helped us to know the citizen's response, their requirements, so now we have extended it to all the other wards across the city. We will be implementing it step by step, so in the first phase we have selected some societies who are ready to be part of this project.

"A vehicle to collect wet waste will be sent to these identified societies and hotels daily. Dry waste does not decay or have a bad odour, so a vehicle will be sent separately as per quantity of generation or the requirement of the locality. We will look at the response of the citizens and improvise accordingly," said a civic official of the Solid waste management department.

BMC to get six e-rickshaws to collect waste

Meanwhile, to achieve zero garbage the BMC will procure six e-rickshaws to collect solid waste around the clock from the narrow lane of Govandi, Deonar and Mankhurd. As per BMC, around 82 percent of waste is currently segregated at the source. The civic body has set a target to achieve 100 percent segregation in the near future. The city generates 6,300 to 6,500 metric tonnes of waste per day.