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MANGALORE: Taking a cue from the garbage mess that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) is facing, Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) will launch a door-to-door collection of solid waste from December 1.

The city corporation authorities expect that eight packages for handling solid waste in the city covering 60 wards will stabilize within a month. MCC has selected contractors for four packages and will do so for the rest by the end of this month.

A four pronged strategy such as segregation of waste at source in two wards, door-to-door collection in remaining 58 wards, their transportation to the landfill site from secondary collection points and collection of bulk canteen/hotel waste - vegetarian and non-vegetarian separately- form part of this strategy. MCC has invited separate tenders for handling bulk canteen waste and will employ six and three vehicles respectively for two types of waste.

Segregation of bio-degradable and non-degradable waste will be undertaken at Mannagudda and Court wards, K Harish Kumar, commissioner told TOI. The initial focus will be to ensure due segregation at source in these wards and then extend it to remaining wards. An attempt to roll out segregation in all wards at once might result in its failure. Organic waste of these two wards after segregation will be sent to the bio-gas plant in Urwa.

Until such time that people in the remaining wards got used to segregation, the waste collected in door-to-door drive and taken to secondary transportation point, will be segregated broadly into two categories in the lorries used to transport them to land fill site at Pachchanady. The lorries will have two compartments, where one will be filled with inert and the other with organic waste, said Manjunath R Shetty, environment engineer of the civic body.

With emphasis on primary collection of waste at source and their transportation to the secondary transportation point, the number of waste bins at secondary point too will come down, he said adding that such bins will be made inaccessible for people. "Otherwise, the whole effort will go waste," he said.

"They will be so placed that it is economical for lorries deployed by the contractors to collect them easily and transport them to the landfill site," he added.

Wise waste management

Each house in two wards will be given two bins of 10-litre capacity. Green bin is for storing biodegradable waste and red bin for non-degradable waste. Each apartment in the two wards will be given two bins of 150-litre capacity for the purpose. They will also be given two pushcarts and a vehicle for collecting solid waste. MCC will spend Rs 6 lakh on each of the two wards for making segregation of solid waste and door-to-door waste collection a success.