Don’t make our lakes plastic dumps

Plastic waste is turning out to be the major polluter of lakes in Bengaluru. Carelessly discarded plastic bottles, bags, sachets, cans, boxes, single use eating utensils from function halls and packaging material in areas not covered by daily garbage collectors end up in storm water drains, get into rajakaluves and finally find their way into the city’s lakes. Floating over algae and semi-liquid slush, the sludge turns into islands. Under torrid sunshine, the overgrown cover of grass and shrubs is a readymade tinderbox awaiting a small fuse to turn it into an inferno. No wonder that Bengaluru was in the international headlines for the unique scene of its lakes being on fire or their toxic waters spewing foam into the air.

Plastic is a boon as well as a bane. No material offers the advantages it does. It can carry both solids and liquids; is totally non-permeable; can inflate or collapse into any shape or size; allows packed stuff to remain bone dry, free from moulds; and is the lightest packaging material that does not add weight to the packed stuff. But it is also considered the biggest curse of modern industrial civilization, for it is non-biodegradable. A single use plastic when discarded in the open, would litter the globe for five million years. It chokes the drains and water bodies and could as well act as perfect barrier for free-flowing stream and gutters.

Of the nearly 5,000 metric tons of garbage generated in Bengaluru on an average day, 20 per cent of it consists of waste plastic. Despite several measures initiated by the city’s civic body, the BBMP, some of the plastic waste remains unpicked. The portion that gets into water bodies becomes the responsibility of the Karnataka Lake Conservation Development Authority, a parastatal body managing the city’s water bodies. It is a unique challenge to those who are vested with responsibility to manage the sanitation of the city. It calls for the issue to be viewed as stemming from the inefficient management of solid waste, the key function of the BBMP.

It is therefore imperative for the BBMP to lay down an integrated solid waste management (SWM) mechanism which works with 100 per cent efficiency when it comes to safe disposal of plastic waste. Such a mechanism will inevitably have to look at eliminating chances of plastic waste being discarded anywhere other than the bins of daily garbage collectors, or the occasional dry scrap collecting vans or dry waste collection centres (DWCC).

The Government of Karnataka has imposed complete ban on manufacture, use and sale of carry bags, the most notable source of plastic waste. But it is a common sight to see the rules being violated rather than being complied with. The State being the 4th largest generator of plastic waste among India’s states (contributing 9% of the total), primarily needs to tighten the inspection against breach of the rules laid down under Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 by the Central Pollution Control Board.