Mumbai: A decade ago in 2016, the BMC made bulk waste generators (BWG)–housing societies and commercial complexes generating more than 100kg of waste a day–responsible for processing their own waste. But due to space constraints and logistical challenges the task was eventually outsourced to third party agencies.
While the BWG would ideally segregate their waste, other agencies would be paid to process the wet waste, typically by composting, and send the dry waste for recycling.
On Tuesday, the BMC announced this outsourcing would be discontinued across the city in the next seven days. The BMC will once again be responsible for managing the BWG’s waste. The civic body will transport the wet waste to its dumping ground in Kanjurmarg, and the dry waste to the dry waste segregation centres.
“Of the 20 agencies processing waste for these bulk waste generators, most were found to be slyly redirecting the waste in the BMC’s landfill, largely by dumping it in slums. In most cases, no processing was actually happening,” said Kiran Dighavkar, the deputy municipal commissioner, solid waste management. “The agencies did this despite taking a fee of an average of ₹150 per flat from the BWGs. Hence, it was decided the outsourcing would be discontinued.”
In its inspection conducted over July, the BMC found that there are 20 empanelled third party agencies that claim to take over the task of waste processing of BWG. These 20 agencies cater to 335 BWG – but disproportionately. While two agencies were found to be catering only to a single BWG, one agency (M/s.Pruthvi Enviro Solution) services 53 BWGs, while other (M/s S. K. Biotech) handles as many as 78. Together, all 20 have a processing capacity of 69 TPD (of wet waste).
Further, the BMC’s inspection of the processing area of these plants raised eyebrows. Six of these agencies had an area under 1,000 sqft, with another four having space less than 2,000 sqft.
The civic body also found many of the agency’s processing sites bunched up together at sites, with nine having galas at the Kurla Scrap Association at Mandale Village, and another four situated in Dharvali, Malvani, Malad West. It found that most of the facilities operate from temporary or tin sheds and were found to be in unhygienic conditions.
All these factors made it doubly clear to the BMC that most of these agencies were claiming to process wet waste far more than they had the capacity for. “These agencies were found not to have the capacity for waste processing or doing any scientific processing,” said Dighavkar.
He added that while the first step was to discontinue the outsourcing, the BMC may allow it to restart again once it revisits its rules and supervision of these agencies.
Already, for a few months since April, the BMC has not been renewing their yearly licences of these third party waste processing agencies, although it has still been allowing them to operate till now. Natasha D’Costa, founder of SUN (Start Upcycling Now), one of the companies carrying out the waste processing of several BWGs, now worrying about the future of her enterprise, said, “The reason housing societies pay us for collecting their segregated waste is because they trust us to scientifically process their waste. In return, we pay them for their dry waste which goes to recycling, which is why they hand us their dry waste in a good condition. Households tend not to segregate their waste if it is going to the BMC, as it is often seen that the BMC mixes the segregated waste, putting their efforts to waste.”