Under the ‘Swachhata-Swasthya Samriddhi programme and CSE’s guidance, household propagation for segregation at source and home composting have been completed in 31 wards out of the 49 that the city has. In 26 wards, propagation has been completed for all commercial establishments. Of the segregated waste, the wet waste goes to the MRDA composting facility while dry waste is taken to a dry waste collection centre. The compost produced complies with FCO norms for city compost; the city is now exploring the market linkages for this.
The implementation of this programme has led to a 50-60 per cent landfill load reduction. Another significant reduction has been in the cost of fuel, with savings of around Rs 80,000 per trip per year – this is because much of the waste does not need to be transported to landfills. As many as 100 ‘black spots’ (illegal dumping areas) have been removed from across the city.
The UD&HD Department of Bihar has asked 13 urban local bodies of the state to adopt models similar to that of Muzaffarpur at the earliest. Gaya, Patna and Ara have already initiated source segregation and decentralized composting in a few wards.
CSE has been made a member of the State-level Advisory Committee on Waste Management constituted by the Bihar state government for promotion of sustainable waste management practices.
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