Societies will have to dispose their own garbage

With garbage disposal becoming an increasingly difficult task for Thane
Municipal Corporation, the civic body has decided that all new residential
complexes that will come up in Thane henceforth, will have to make its own
garbage disposal arrangements. The decision has been taken after the volume
of garbage generated within the jurisdiction of TMC has increased to
unmanageable proportions. To formulate the decision, a proposal to this
effect was recently passed in the General Body meeting of TMC.

The corporation will encourage the new residential complexes to adopt
vermiculture, which will not only ensure proper disposal of the garbage
locally but also convert the waste into useful manure for plants and trees.
The corporation has entrusted the disposal of garbage to individual
societies after its own plans to recycle the waste from residential
societies failed to take off. While the Kopri recycling plant is constantly
plagued by outcry by neigbouring citizens and legal hassles, the proposed
plans to generate electricity from the city's waste is still on paper.

Thane generates about 750 tonnes of waste everyday, of which more than half
is waste generated from residential areas. Of this, almost 400 tonnes of
waste is dumped on the dumping grounds on the outskirts of the city.
However, with the dumping grounds nearing the overflow mark, the corporation
is facing a problem to manage the waste generated by the city.

The other alternative is to generate electricity from the waste. However,
the projects proposed to TMC for generating electricity at the dumping
grounds have run into rough weather, due to various factors related to
generation and distribution of the electricity. Till the time the recycling
projects don't get underway and tonnes of garbage is piling at the city's
dumping grounds, the new societies will not be allowed to add to the burden
and asked to take care of its own waste.

Speaking about the new waste management plans, a senior official attached to
the health department of TMC said, "The corporation will extend its help to
the residential complexes in setting up the vermiculture pits, educating the
residents to distinguish between wet and dry waste, separate disposal of
biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, etc. However, the onus of
disposing the garbage on a day-to-day basis will be on the residential
societies or the contractors appointed by them".



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