Many people are storing their biodegradable waste in plastic bags and throwing the bags into bins meant for only biodegradable waste, creating hurdles in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s fledgling effort to segregate waste.
A plastic bag or any other form of plastic should be thrown into bins meant for non-biodegradable products but Kolkatans have not been able to overcome their old habit of storing kitchen waste in plastic bags.
“Plastic bags are supposed to be thrown into bins meant for non-biodegradable waste but that is not being followed in many places. People are throwing the plastic bags into bins for biodegradable waste,” said a senior KMC official.
This has thrown up a new challenge for the civic body, he said.
The KMC has started the collection of segregated waste from households across all wards of Kolkata.
Two bins — one blue and one green — have been given to households. The green bins are meant for biodegradable waste, which includes waste from cooked food, vegetables and fruit peels. The blue bins are meant for non-biodegradable waste, like plastic, metal and glass.
Morning waste collectors of the KMC, too, have green and blue bins of larger sizes in their carts. Residents are supposed to throw the waste stored in the green bins in their homes into the green bins in the carts and blue bin waste in the blue ones.
“We send kitchen waste, which includes waste from cooked food and leftovers of fruits and vegetables, to a compost plant in Dhapa. But if the waste contains plastic, we will not be able to send it to the plant,” said a KMC official. “The plastic will damage the equipment in the compost plant.”
The compost plant in Dhapa now uses 500 tonnes of biodegradable waste. Using this as raw material, the plant produces bio-CNG. The KMC has plans to expand the capacity of the plant but to be able to do that the supply of raw material — the biodegradable waste — has to be increased.
It is here that civic officials are facing a challenge because, in many places, residents are mixing plastic with biodegradable waste.
For years, Kolkatans have been used to storing all kinds of waste together. Most people would keep daily waste in plastic bags, mostly single-use plastic bags. When the morning KMC waste collector arrived, they handed over the waste stored in the bags. This habit is still continuing.
“We have now asked our waste collectors to tell residents they have to pour the kitchen waste in the plastic bags into the green bin meant for biodegradable waste. After emptying the plastic bags, the bags should be thrown into the blue bins meant for non-biodegradable waste,” said the civic body official.
The KMC has asked its waste collectors to identify people who don’t separate plastic from biodegradable waste even after being told.
“If required, we will have to impose penalties on them,” said the official.
In the latest meeting of all councillors of the KMC held last week, Debabrata Majumdar, mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s solid waste management department, urged councillors to be more active and ensure waste segregation at the household before they were handed over to KMC’s morning waste collectors.