RTI queries have revealed that from 1970 to 2012, we have not cleared our domestic waste and continue to dump municipal waste in available lands. Similar to the “garbage mountains” of Kodungaiyur and Perungudi in Chennai, many hills of waste are growing in third-grade municipalities across the state.
According to the Municipal Solid Waste (M&H) Rules, 2000, all municipalities should have set up waste processing and disposal facilities by the end of 2003 and improved landfill sites for future use. However, many municipalities have not made the effort to segregate waste so far.
As per RTI documents, officials of Palladam municipality in Tirupur district, which was upgraded to a third-grade municipality in 2010, admit that they do not collect waste in different bins at the source point. Nor do they sell compost.
Located very close to the Madurai-Theni highway, Usilampatti municipality does not bother selling compost waste generated over four decades. Officials say there are no facilities to set up a compost yard.
Kumbakonam municipality, a special grade municipal town and second biggest town in terms of administrative status in the state, has packed plastic waste in big bags and kept them aside for the last 40 years. The other wastes are carried in municipality vehicles to be dumped in any land that’s available.
Source segregation at households is the only option to prevent the growth of these mountains of garbage, say environmentalists. Activist S. Nallasamy pointed out that waste in Kumarapalayam municipality, Namakkal district, is directly dumped on the banks of the Bhavani river. “Officials have admitted that waste is dumped in the river and they did not take action.”
He questioned why box type waste bins with two different sections to dump degradable and biodegradable waste, are not used in the municipalities. “Municipalities continue to buy these box type bins but do not use them. When they do not segregate the waste before dumping it, why do they buy these boxes wasting municipality funds,” he asked.
Municipal administration minister K.P. Munusamy told this newspaper, “Farmers have stopped buying municipal waste as it contains a lot of plastic bags. We have plans to segregate the waste dumped all these years in various municipalities.” He said vermi-composting of waste was also being planned.