Bhubaneswar, Jan. 22: The civic body will install 3,600 dustbins at 1,800 locations across the city to ensure better waste management and a cleaner city.
By February 1, as many as 1,000 bins will be set up at 500 locations. Each location will have two coloured bins for waste segregation. While one bin will be used for bio-degradable waste, the other one would be for recyclable waste.
The two bins will be green and blue in colour. While the green bin will be used for bio-degradable waste such as vegetable peel, fruits, household kitchen waste, etc, the blue ones will be used to dump metals, glass, rags, rubber, containers, etc.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) installed 60 bins at 30 locations today. The locations included the city bus stand, Master Canteen Square and other busy market areas.
Residents will be sensitised to dump garbage in the respective bins. At present, the city has around 4,000 bins. The number will nearly double by next month with the introduction of the coloured bins.
"The authorities are lagging behind when it comes to provision of toilets and number of dustbins. The collection process is good, but the absence of adequate dustbins force people to litter the roads. I hope the system will lead to a cleaner city," said Damana resident Akshay Sahoo.
The corporation has taken the step to ensure an integrated solid waste management system. The proposed system will focus on collection, segregation and disposal of the waste at its source instead of bearing the additional cost for its transportation to the dumping yard. It will also concentrate on reduction of the amount of garbage.
"The most preferred option for solid waste management is to prevent waste generation. It will help reduce handling, treatment and disposal costs, and reduce the environmental impacts, including generation of toxic gases," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
To prevent generation of waste, the civic body plans to sensitise citizens to use reusable bags while shopping, and choose products that may be reused and returned after a single use.
The system will also ensure recovery of recyclable material resources trough a process of segregation, collection and re-processing to create new products. Another focus area of the system would be to create organic compost through waste, which can be used for agricultural purposes.
"In the proposed system, we will concentrate on energy generation out of waste. We propose to set up a waste-to-energy plant at the Bhuasuni dumping yard and have started fencing it. The selected firm has also been asked to begin the work shortly," said the mayor.
"The civic body is doing their cleaning-up duty well in some parts of the city. But, they still have miles to go. There are many places such as Palasuni, Niladri Vihar, Sailashree Vihar and more, which the officials neglect on the cleanliness parameters. They should bring uniformity in the system," said Palasuni resident Rajesh Mohanty.
In another development, the housing and urban development department here will bring some amendments in the existing solid waste management rules in line with the one notified by the ministry of environment in March last year. The new modalities such as the waste management system will be included in the rules.
"The Centre has asked us to formulate by-laws under the new solid waste management rules. We have finished drafting the by-laws and will shortly introduce them at all urban local bodies in the state. One of the prominent features of the by-laws is the integrated solid waste management system," said a department official.
The move of bringing in the new system and amended regulations have become a need of the hour at a time when the city is preparing to compete with 499 other cities of the country in a national-level cleanliness survey - Swachh Survekhsan II. In the first edition of the survey, the city was ranked 24th among 73 other cities in January last year.
