Indian Centre for Plastics in Environment (ICPE), a representative
body of the plastic industry, initiated a pilot project on
segregation of domestic waste, collection and separation of
solid waste that is later to be disposed off safely by the
BMC. An NGOs organization, NAGAR and BMC helped ICPE put this
system in place in Cuffe Parade in April 2001. It is still
working very efficiently because citizens of Ward-A here living
in over 160 buildings have realized the worth of their contribution
in keeping their environment clean, bereft of solid waste,
including used plastics being strewn around. ICPE has extended
the successful Cuffe Parade experiment to 5 other municipal
wards such as Malabar Hill, Dadar Parsee colony, Bhandup,
Mulund and Andheri / Vile Parle East.
The details…
ICPE – NAGAR – BMC PROJECT
Segregation of Waste and solid waste management in Cuffe
Parade
ICPE sponsored the project in association with NAGAR and
BMC in the early last year to link citizens, government and
the plastic industry. With the cooperation of NAGAR through
its Project Co-ordinator Ms. Priya Ubale and BMC through its
Ward officer for Ward A, Mr. Kiran Achreker, the programme
of segregation of dry and wet garbage in the Cuffe Parade
residential area was put into operation in April 2001.
The Solid Waste Management Scheme has been in operation in
the following manner:
- The individual residents keep two separate bins to segregate
dry and wet garbage.
- The dry and wet garbage bins are emptied into specially
designated collection rooms on the ground floor of the building.
- Seven rag pickers arranged by Stri Mukti Sangathana are
assigned the task of loading the BMC van from each of the
buildings on a daily basis. They have been provided with
safety wear such as Apron, Rainy shoes, Rain coat ,cap by
ICPE.
- After collecting dry garbage from the participating buildings
the BMC van dumps the waste in a corner of “Suraksha
garden” – designated by BMC.
- The rag pickers sort the waste material into plastic,
paper, glass, metal and keep it ready for the Recyclers.
- The ICPE Recyclers / dealers take stock of the sorted
material and make payment to the rag pickers as per the
prevailing market rates.
- So far, ICPE has funded the project to the tune of Rs.1,00,000.
Ultimately, ICPE expects to make this entire operation -
starting from segregation at the household level up to the
lifting of sorted dry garbage by the recycler - to be self-sustaining.
Expansion of the project to 5 more Municipal wards in different
parts of the city in the coming months is likely to cost ICPE,
Rs. 3.5 lakhs a year.
The combined effort of ICPE, BMC, NGOs group NAGAR and Stri
Mukti Sanghatana has proved that private initiative and governmental
cooperation is the only sustainable solution to this major
problem of solid waste management in a city like Mumbai that
produces 7,000 tones of garbage every day.
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