Bengaluru wastelands: No landfills, 10 processing units

Earlier, there used to be two landfills (Mandur on the outskirts of east Bengaluru and Mavallipura to the north of the city) and two quarries (at Lakshmipur and Bingipur, both in southeast Bengaluru) where garbage would be dumped. But in 2013, people who lived in areas close to these sites — first at Mavallipura and later at Mandur — protested against the dumping of waste and clashed with authorities of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city corporation. At present, garbage from households gets taken directly to 10 garbage processing units, all on the outskirts of the city. Eight of these units handle segregated waste and two handle unsegregated waste.

Agency responsible: Seven of these processing units are run by the BBMP and three work under the PPP model. The BBMP plans to start more processing units in and around the city. The BBMP has private contractors who collect garbage from localities in the city and take them to these units. Before the waste reaches the processing units, it is segregated into wet, dry and hazardous waste.

The waste is mostly segregated at source. Garbage vehicles collect wet and dry wastes on alternate days from localities. The Kannahalli and Doddabidarakallu processing units get unsegregated waste from areas that do not sort out waste in their localities.

At Gundlahalli unit

According to Subhod Yadav, Special Commissioner for Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Bengaluru, Terrafarma in Gundlahalli near Doddaballapur (in Bengaluru Rural district, not in the limits of corporation) is the biggest waste processing unit, which does both composting and biomethanisation (where the waste is decomposed with microorganisms).

Read: Wastelands of India – Here’s how metros manage their trash

The unit has a capacity of handling 1,000 tonnes of waste a day. This unit has run into trouble with residents who have complained of “rash” driving of vehicles that bring in garbage and of health problems. BBMP officials say people in Gorur, a village on the outskirts on Kanakapura road, where the BBMP plans to set up another processing unit, have already started protesting.