BSWML app to enable listing, clearing of discarded items

BENGALURU: Broken commodes, cots, mattresses, furniture, doors, and other wares are seen discarded on footpaths, empty plots and roadsides. These, in turn, transform into a blackspot where the public dumps their waste. To clear all this, Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) plans to launch an app, where citizens can post photos and locations of discarded items in their neighbourhood, and a tractor will be sent to collect them every Sunday, starting from October 26. On Wednesday, a meeting of the recyclers, solid waste management activists and others were held. BSWML Managing Director Karee Gowda said, In the last seven days, over 1,000 beds, sofa sets, and cots have been placed on roads. From October 26, we will launch an initiative to collect such items once a week. A software will also be launched, and people can list the unwanted items like sofas, cots, beds, and books, and we will collect them. While clearing blackspots, the main focus remains on clearing garbage, and these items are not touched as they are too big and heavy to fit into garbage collection autos. So BSWML has come up with this idea. The collected items will be sent to recyclers. Its a good initiative involving citizens and recyclers to eradicate black spots. The broader perspective is to ensure that the waste pickers community benefits from it, said waste activist Plog Raja (Nagaraj) of The Indian Ploggers Army, who along with other SWM activists took part in the meeting. He said that to ensure that the waste items do not travel to multiple destinations, each zone must have collection centres. Additionally, first-level sorting by citizens will help. We are looking forward to an easy application with a quick response time. We appreciate the way BSWML is encouraging citizens to join this campaign, he said.