Bengaluru: Bengalureans were told to take up composting of their wet waste and there was a carrot dangled by the BBMP, which said it would buy the compost generated by the households.
But weeks on, the BBMP is yet to buy the natural fertiliser, while homemakers are left with quite a pile at their homes. The civic body seems only interested in organising composting santhes and selling the necessities, like coco peat, buckets and crushers, needed for making the compost.
Many homemakers and office-goers who took up composting with enthusiasm are now clueless as to where to hand over the compost and who will pay for it. The intention behind the novel plan was to get citizens involved and to reduce the amount of wet waste being transported to landfills.
If the BBMP fails to buy compost from citizens, waste segregation that has reached 50 percent across the city will see an alarming dip and garbage piles will start coming up across the city all over again, warned Citizens' Action Forum president D.S. Rajashekar.
The BBMP, which is now focused only on organising composting santhes, should have also made arrangements to buy compost from citizens, he said.
Hundreds of homemakers have invested money to buy the necessities to start composting, with the hope that the BBMP would buy the compost, he said.
Asked why the BBMP floated the idea of buying compost from citizens even before putting a system in place, Mayor Padmavathi agreed that the Palike is yet to buy compost from citizens. “We are planning to set up compost collection centres at all 198 wards on the lines of dry waste collection centres. We are also exploring the option of collecting compost door-to-door like how garbage is collected,” she said.
