The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has started installing large green and blue bins in shopping hubs and commercial areas in the city to make people start segregating waste in these places.
An official of the civic body said the KMC wanted to expand the segregation drive to all places and not restrict it among households only.
The official cited an example to explain why segregation was needed in commerical hubs and places with eateries. "Suppose someone eats an egg roll. The paper cover of the roll should go to the bin meant for dry waste and the onions inside the roll should be thrown in the bin meant for wet waste," he said.
Segregation of waste at source was launched in all wards in Kolkata in December 2022 but it was primarily restricted to collecting segregated waste from households.
The civic body has procured 12,000 bins of 240-litre capacity for installing them along roads with stores, eateries and street vendors.
All shops and street vendors generate a huge amount of plastic waste every day but the waste is thrown in the street together with other kinds of waste. If the plastic waste can be collected separately, it can be used as raw material in the recycling industry.
The KMC has set up a plastic waste recycling plant at Dhapa and has to ensure a steady supply of plasic for it.
Despite the distribution of bins to residents, the progress in segregation has been tardy. Many households still throw waste without segregating it. The KMC, too, has not made much effort to see that residents segregate waste.
Mayor Firhad Hakim and mayoral council member in charge of solid waste management, Debababrata Majumdar, have repeatedly urged councillors to speak to residents and see that waste is segregated at source.
The KMC has the power to impose penalties on those who do not segregate waste, but hardly anyone has been fined.
In some places, the carts that come the come to collect waste in the morning still do not have separate bins. A Kasba resident said the collection cart does not have separate bins. "Even if we segregate waste, it goes to one place. There is one sack where the waste collectors asks us to dump plastic bottles. The rest is all mixed up," said the resident.