Effective management of waste need of hour: Experts

  • December 17, 2022
  • Share

"There is a lack of awareness among the various stakeholders regarding plastic waste management as also limited clarity among manufacturers about how the extended producer responsibility can be implemented"

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Several organisations involved in waste management came together and held a public dissemination workshop that discussed how effective municipal solid and plastic waste management is the need of the hour.

Dr Suneel Pandey, director of The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), said, “There is a lack of awareness among the various stakeholders regarding plastic waste management as also limited clarity among manufacturers about how the EPR (extended producer responsibility) needs to be implemented.”

EPR is a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility, financial or physical, for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. Dr Pandey cited a fivecity analysis, where statistical data like per capita generation of organic waste was analysed and a comprehensive overview of the EPR (Extended Producers’ Responsibility) was given, to provide a clearer picture of his stance.

Nalini Shekhar, the cofounder and executive director of HasiruDala, a waste pickers organisation in the city, said, “Female entrepreneurs in Bengaluru have initiated various programmes for waste management, and have earned an ID card with the logo of the city and the signature of the commissioner to run decentralised MRFs (materials recovery facility)”.

When asked about the involvement of the BBMP with waste pickers, she said, “Bengaluru is the only city that has signed a contract with these waste pickers and we are just a third party to support them.” Dr NB Majumdar, an international waste management expert, said, “At this point of time, plastic has made deep inroads in our lives and it is not practical to weed out plastics and plastic waste.”

He also spoke about the dilemma of segregation at the source and pointed out the various ways to approach the concept of plastic waste management. He then concluded the discussion by saying “to do something is better than not doing anything”.