Waste Segregated In City Only To Be Dumped At Same Spot In Bhandewadi

Nagpur: Bhandewadi dumping yard, already under scrutiny for unchecked dumping practices, has now turned into a firetrap, exposing gaping flaws in the city's waste management system. Despite collecting over Rs14.15 crore in fines from private agencies since 2019, only 5% of this amount was on account of dumping mixed waste — an oversight that continues to nullify years of segregation efforts.

Unchecked mixing of dry and wet garbage at the landfill not only defeats the purpose of door-to-door segregation but also led to the massive fire that broke out on April 19, with fire crews still battling the flames days later. Currently, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), through private contractors AG Enviro and BVG India, collects and transports around 1,350 metric tonnes of garbage daily to the Bhandewadi site.

Of this, about 60-70% is said to be segregated at source — collected as dry and wet waste separately. However, investigations by TOI revealed that both segregated and mixed waste are ultimately dumped together at the landfill, making the segregation effort meaningless. Shockingly, there is no mechanism in place to check what kind of waste is being transported or dumped at the landfill. "No vehicle is stopped or checked at the dumping yard, whether carrying mixed or segregated waste," admitted a senior official from NMC's solid waste management department.

Interestingly, NMC continues to penalise contractors for failing to collect segregated waste, while taking little to no action at the final dumping site.

On the other hand, NMC has been spending Rs780 per metric tonne on Bhandewadi legacy waste bioremediation (treatment of waste using microorganisms such as bacteria that break down undesirable substances). Over the last few years, NMC claims to have treated 16 lakh metric tonnes, freeing up 20 acres of land where a waste-to-biogas plant by Netherlands-based Sustainable Business Development (SusBDe) is now under construction. However, an estimated 13 lakh metric tonnes of untreated legacy waste still remain. Continued dumping of fresh mixed garbage on this site is severely hampering bioremediation work.

The SusBDe plant was to be completed within 18 months of the MoU signed in June 2023, but the deadline has already been extended to November 2025. Municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari acknowledged the issue stating that mixed garbage continues to be dumped and the situation would improve only after the plant becomes fully operational.

Recent fire at the landfill has highlighted risks of mixing biodegradable and inflammable materials. The blaze, which broke out on April 19, has required continuous deployment of eight fire tenders with 24 firefighters working in shifts to contain it. Officials say the fire could have been avoided if NMC had enforced segregation norms more strictly since outsourcing garbage collection to private firms in 2009.

Environmental activists and civic experts have long warned that poor enforcement and lax monitoring at Bhandewadi could lead to a disaster. The fire, they say, is just the latest in a series of warning signs ignored by the city's administration.