MARGAO, JULY 30

Set to change: A view of the garbage dump at Kodungaiyur, where a waste processing facility is to be set up.

Chennai: The Chennai Corporation will float fresh tenders for an integrated solid waste processing plant at Kodungaiyur, Mayor M. Subramanian said on Wednesday.

A resolution related to the waste processing plant was tabled before the Corporation Council at a meeting held at Ripon Building.

Basavaraj Itnaal
For a city that boasts of IT hegemony in the country, Bangalore has a dismal record of garbage management. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), whose obligatory function is to collect, transport and dispose of the municipal solid waste (MSW), is apparently caught up in the politics of one-upmanship.

Waste-pickers worldwide gathered in Colombia to highlight how central they are to urban existence Sometime in 2007, history was unmade and made. From being a global village, the world became an urban conglomerate

Sri Lanka's Central Environment Authority (CEA) yesterday imposed another financial burden on the public by asking them to pay for the polyethylene sacks supermarkets use for bagging the groceries for free of charge normally.

At a media briefing held to announce this decision, the Environment Minister and Ultra Nationalist Party, Jathika Hela Urumaya MP, Patali Champaka Ranawaka stated that the decision has been taken to prevent consumers misusing the bags. He said that all supermarket owners have agreed to this decision.

A coalition of five leading supermarket chains announced the launching of a campaign to completely deter the use of plastic shopping bags by their customers from August 1, 2008 with the support of Central Environmental Authority (CEA).

Commenting on the initiative, Udaya Gammanpila, Chairman, CEA said, "One of the objectives of the National Policy on Solid Waste Management in Sri Lanka is to ensure the environmental accountability and social responsibility of all waste generators, waste managers and service providers.'

SANGUEM, JULY 27

Bangalore, DHNS:

The BBMP spends a whopping Rs 90 crore per year on door-to-door collection of garbage. More than 500 trucks are deployed by BBMP and its contractors, to collect and transport about 3000 tonnes of garbage every day. But the Palike does not have the facility to dispose even half this amount.

By Basavaraj Itnaal, DH News Service, Bangalore:

The IT capital is the only city in the country that employs qualified doctors, some of them specialists, to manage garbage.

Apparently, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) is yet to wake up to the fact that there is a discipline in engineering called Environmental Engineering. For, Palike does not employ a single Environmental Engineer while it has to collect more than 3,500 tonnes of garbage every day, transport and dispose it at scientific landfills.