Ranjani Madhavan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Your neighbourhood kabadiwalla could go smart soon. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) is looking at this informal sector for smart waste management solutions. Along with the new system of segregated garbage collection and the draft of Solid Waste Management Bye-laws 2019, BBMP plans to geo-map kabadiwallas (waste pickers). They are an informal and unorganised sector who collect cardboard boxes, papers, plastic and other dry waste. The kabadiwalla is a go-to option for residents who even make a small buck. This is especially useful in wards without Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs). While the unorganised sector exists, there is no information with the Palike on how many of them are there and how much they collect. For this, the BBMP has tied up with Chennai-based waste management company Kabadiwalla Connect that implemented a similar system of organised waste pickers there. “A proposal has been sent to geo-map kabadiwallas who collect high-value dry waste such as cardboard, plastic and glass. Mapping them will help streamline them. They can purchase from DWCCs and either recycle it or sell it as Refuse Driven Fuel (RDF) to industries. The company has its own process, staff, an app to map and survey with a 40-point checklist. We will also aid them with junior health inspectors of each ward. They will start with 57 wards where there are no DWCCs and then cover all the 198,” said a source in the BBMP. The cost estimate for the exercise is yet to be finalised. In fact, only a small portion of dry waste goes to dry waste collection centres, as people mostly sell to it kabadiwallas.Last month, TNIE published a story on a survey that revealed that only 127 DWCCs are functional for 198 wards of the city. “Ideally, we should be collecting 1,000 tonnes of dry waste, but right now we are managing to collect only 300-350 tonnes. With this, we will know how many of them are there and bring them into the system. They can purchase high and low value dry waste from DWCCs and either recycle or sell it as RDF,” said Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department, BBMP. “Some vendors are authorised as scrap dealers by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to collect e-waste. This will create an end-to-end solution without middlemen and get good remuneration for waste pickers,” Khan said.

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