Overflowing community bins in beautified Mumbai

A community bin set up near Shivaji Nagar, Govandi

Old community dustbins, which are often found full and overflowing, are posing an obstacle to the BMC's move to beautify the city, but civic officials seem least bothered about it. There are around 1,500 such bins across the city which are cleaned out once a day. Local residents claimed this was not enough and also pointed at the lack of facilities to segregate waste. This despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation announcing a Rs 2,000-crore beautification plan for the city.

Faiyaz Aslam Shaikh, a Govandi resident, said, "Shivaji Nagar and its surrounding areas have a high population density, so these bins here are always full and the garbage spills over on the road. We have requested BMC officials and even wrote to civic chief I S Chahal. As BMC is promoting waste segregation at source, we have urged them to raise awareness about the same in our area too."

Waste spills over a community dustbin in Kannamwar Nagar, Vikhroli

Vaibhav Zende, who lives in Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli, said, "The BMC has set up these community bins as four places in the area and these are always full as they are cleaned only once a day.

Further, civic officials ask us to segregate waste at home, but these dustbins do not have separate sections for dry and wet waste. BMC needs to set up a proper
mechanism first."

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Civic activist Anil Galgali told mid-day, "Such community bins are not suitable for a city like Mumbai. As there is a high population density, there is more garbage. And if the waste is not picked at regular intervals, it spills over on the road. The BMC needs to come up with a permanent solution as this is not just about waste management but also related to human health."

A BMC official said there were around 6,000 such community bins across the city earlier, which has now been reduced to 1,500 as BMC facilitates daily garbage collection. Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Sanjeev Kumar did not respond to mid-day's calls.

1,500
Approx. no. of community dustbins in the city