The BBMP’s decade-long ‘ignorance’ towards scientific handling of sanitary (domestic hazardous) waste has now come to a head due to the Covid pandemic.
BBMP officials and solid waste activists say the use of masks, visors and rejects (one-time use products) has considerably increased in all zones of the city, almost doubling sanitary waste. The civic body has called for expression of interest for setting up a domestic hazardous waste facility in the city to deal with trash.
Even though the disposal of sanitary waste was always a problem, the civic body had no clue about the actual quantity generated on a daily basis.
Due to the pandemic, the disposal of expired medicines, used syringes, diapers, sanitary towels, menstrual cups or cloths, incontinence sheets, plasters, condoms and ear buds, along with rejects like masks, gloves, cups, tissues and plastic cutlery has proved to be a headache.
D Randeep, special commissioner, solid waste management, BBMP, said there is no technology available other than incineration of sanitary waste.
“While the waste is segregated at source, we depend on private firms with incinerators to dispose of sanitary waste. Hence, we decided to have our own incineration set-up, to tackle the piling household hazardous waste in recent times,” he said.
Officials said despite making special provisions to collect sanitary waste, a huge chunk of it used to end up in landfills as part of mixed waste.
“It was being disposed of as part of mixed waste and trash collectors refused to take it, citing possible infections. The quantum of sanitary waste has increased in recent times due to awareness among the people. Sanitary waste is now handed over separately to the trash collectors,” Randeep said.
Shekar Prabhakar, innovation MD of NGO Hasiru Dala, said, “Due to the pandemic, there has been an increase in single-use items (rejects) like cups, paper tissues, masks, glovesand sanitiser bottles.”
The BBMP plans to have at least one incinerator in every zone to deal with the domestic hazardous waste.
“We will provide land and the private players will set up the facility as per the latest technology, after approval from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. Charges will be fixed in the agreement since the service provider cannot make money out of such waste, unlike dry or wet waste that can either be sold as recyclables or compost, to generate income,” Randeep said.