THE STENCH OF UNDERGROUND DUSTBIN SCAM
The new buzzword in many Nagar Nigams across the country is underground dustbins. Meet any senior Nagar Nigam official in almost any Indian state and he has a new remedy for garbage disposal: Underground dustbins. Be it Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Agra, Haldwani, Dharamshala, Dehradun, Paonta Sahib, or even Chandigarh, the authorities are excited about this new way of disposing of solid waste.
Why is there so much excitement around underground dustbins? One, each dustbin costs ~4.5 lakh and any bulk order means there is plenty of scope for gaining from the deals. The bins need special trucks with cranes and hooks — ~50-55 lakh each — to empty them. Unlike over-the-ground dustbins, underground dustbins need to be installed and the contracts for installation offer a second way of earning an illegal cut. As a recent installation in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala has shown, just one season of heavy rain and the structure — due to the poor quality of materials used— crumbles. So, the authorities will, in all likelihood, have no option but to hand out contracts once more. As of now, in Dharamshala, the Nagar Nigam does no door-to-door collection; any garbage that is collected is through NGOs.
“Who cares if they work as long as they cost ~4.5 lakh apiece, special trucks that cost ~50 lakh will have to be bought and construction contracts can be handed out. This is the racket that is on,” says a source in the ministry of urban development.
Bengaluru recently installed dustbins as part of a pilot project in 24 spots in the city. But though the pilot failed, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is considering installing these bins at another 200 locations. Shekar Prabhakar, managing director, Hasiru Dala Innovations, said that the pilot in Bengaluru didn’t work because there was no segregation of waste and not enough awareness was created.
Yet the BBMP is speaking to a company called Zonta Infratech for a contract for another 400 bins (two bins in 200 locations). The company has installed 140 bins in Dharamshala in the first phase and will install another 140 in the second phase.
According to the company’s managing director Rajkumar, the “bin less” concept is a failure. He said that Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai were also considering going the underground bin way. He argued that getting people to do door-to-door collection in India was a challenge.
But experts in waste management say that not only is this an opportunity to sponge off the system, this is a “lazy solution”. If the municipal authorities are doing their job — which is collecting segregated garbage door to door — there should be no need to install such dustbins.
Asad Warsi, who runs Eco Pro, a waste-management company with nearly 450 employees and is working closely with Indore’s municipal bodies, says that having dustbins in a city — over the ground or under it — in a way is an admission of the fact that the municipality is failing to do its job. He says: “This is precisely why we removed all dustbins in Indore. We don’t want to give citizens this option.”
Indore evaluated the underground bin option but rejected it on two grounds: More expensive and impractical.
But not giving citizens this option means real work for the municipal authorities. Door-todoor garbage collection in many cities and Indian towns virtually does not happen and when it happens it is usually a private firm that has been engaged to perform the job (and residents pay a small charge for it).
Experts point out that installing underground dustbins is not enough. There are steps that residents have to be made aware of and persuaded to take. Wet waste has to be segregated from solid waste, residents have to carry them to the location of the bins, pull out the handle of the bin, put their waste in the tray, and push the handle in again so that the tray empties into the underground dustbin. Then the sensors have to work so that the authorities are aware that the bins need to be emptied. Says Jodie Under hill, founder of Waste Warriors in Uttarakhand :“A huge awareness campaign has to accompany their (the bins’) installation. Residents have to understand how they work and be willing to cooperate.”
In India, the way the things stand, none of these happens. People have plastic bags full of mixed waste. They go or ask their domestic help to go and throw the garbage somewhere near the public dustbin or an open spot. People often throw these bags from their vehicles in the direction of the dustbin. Few want to touch the handles and levers (because these are filthy). Also, the stench of the filth keeps people away.
“I read an article soon after the dustbins in D ha rams ala were installed. It said the waste was segregated instantly at the origin and there was zero landfill. This is obviously not true but sadly people believe it. The general public is being misled and misguided with promises of miracle machines,” says Underhill, arguing that just because this technology works in some countries, it doesn’t mean it could be blindly adopted in all.