Bengaluru generates about 3000 - 3500 tones of Solid Waste daily. The municipal solid waste landfills create lots of environmental pollution due to landfill gas combustion, leakage of leachate and foul smells. Among all these, leakage of leachate affects the surrounding environment the most, especially the surface and ground water bodies because the leachate consists of high concentrations of heavy metals, organic compounds and toxic contents.
What happens exactly?
From the recent discovery of the Transfer Point near Madiwala lake I found that a huge amount of waste and leachate remains even after the entire spot is cleaned.
This is due to the leakage that happens while transferring the waste from the small trucks (primary trucks) to the compactors (Secondary trucks).
Transfer points are the points where the local waste handlers, those who pick up waste from door to door (also sweep streets and collect road waste), bring the household waste here either in small truck or tempo. These points are typically in an informal place on an open plot. Then these wastes are transferred to the big truck.
Who are responsible for the leakage?
- The person (all citizens like us) who threw away organic waste, do not seal the bag. They could have easily composted the waste.
Source- Times of India - The garbage collectors need not have overloaded his tempo while door to door collection of the waste from our houses.
Source-Times of India - The helper could have handled the automated transfer to the compactor(big truck) in a better way. They cannot handle all leakages and thus it falls on the ground.
- The truck driver could have moved the truck a few inches to avoid the wastes falling on the ground.
- The leachate falls on the ground while the process happens.
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Leakages seem intrinsic to our local culture. Any waste bin in a public place has waste around it.
Is there any way to prevent the leakage while transferring the waste? Or is there any way to prevent the leakage of leachate that further affects the environment?
Share your comments and ideas here!!
