Citizen Connect: Erratic garbage collection defeats source segregation

CHENNAI: Efforts taken by the Greater Chennai Corporation to ramp up source segregation is going down the drain as the residents continue to dump unsegregated waste in bins owing erratic door-to-door collection of garbage.

Vishnupriya, a resident of Choolaimedu in Teynampet zone, said that conservancy workers visit her every day for door-to-door collection of garbage. “But the timing is erratic. Workers visit anytime between 8 am to 10 am. As I am residing in the second floor, I often miss their whistle or songs,” she added.

She said that she was dumping her household garbage in a bin at the corner of her street unsegregated. “A few days ago, workers cautioned of penalty and since then I keep wet and dry waste separately. When I hand over segregated waste to the workers, they mix them. There is no use in asking the public to segregate waste without educating the workers,” she opined.

Residents in some areas could not keep the garbage at the gate so that the workers would take whenever they visit due to the presence of street dogs. “If there is any food item in the garbage, stray dogs would scavenge and scatter the waste,” a resident added.

Apart from shortcomings in the door-to-door collection, some conservancy workers dump garbage they collected door-to-door into bins.

Recently, the civic body has warned city residents not to dump unsegregated waste in the bins and requested them to hand it over to the conservancy workers. Failing which they will be fined Rs 100 as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2019.

When asked, an official said that awareness campaigns about source segregation are conducted for the workers and measures will be taken to streamline the timings.