SHIVANI SINGH

This World Environment Day on June 5, the North and East Delhi Municipal Corporations launched a waste segregation drive as a pilot project in 10 neighbourhoods. In a city choking with garbage, this tiny step could lead to big gains in the future.

The pilot project requires residents to split biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste into green and blue bins. The municipality-appointed waste-pickers will collect this trash in customised tippers. The kitchen waste will go into compost plants and recyclables to recyclers. If all goes as planned, there will be hardly any rubbish left to be taken to the overflowing dump sites.

All this is easier said than done. Segregation is the first step in waste management. It is also the most difficult to enforce. The efforts of the entire neighbourhood can go waste if one household fails to put its plastic bags, glass bottles and tins in the blue bin or if the garbage-collector mixes the two types.

Many cities have tried waste segregation by enforcing penalties. In the developed world, households pay by volume for the garbage they discard under ‘pay as you throw’ (PAYT). Every fourth American, the Economist reported, lives in a PAYT community. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that they reduce the volume of rubbish by 14-27% and increase recycling by 32-59%.

Even the Solid Waste Management Rules — notified by the Union government last