BSWML to give contract for end-to-end management of animal waste in Bengaluru

The Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd (BSWML) is working towards separate collection and processing streams for all kinds of waste in Bengaluru. Even as tenders for end-to-end processing of Construction and Debris (C&D) waste have been finalised and are awaiting approval by the government of Karnataka, tenders have been called for end-to-end management of animal waste in Bengaluru.

BSWML is also looking at streamlining sanitary and biomedical waste streams. 

Animal waste 

The city is estimated to produce around 200 tonnes of animal waste, most of it from meat shops. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had mandated that meat shops give their waste to a set of empanelled vendors. However, often, animal waste is dumped in vacant lands and lake beds. This eventually attracts packs of strays dogs. 

To correct this situation, BSWML has called tenders, divided into five packages — one for each of the five corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) — for end-to-end management of animal waste. The contractor who bags the contract needs to collect animal waste from all meat shops in their particular corporation every day, and clear animal carcasses as well. The contractor will have to weigh the animal waste from each generator and enter it in a mobile application being developed for the same. Animal waste generators will have to pay a user fee of ₹5 per kilo to BSWML. 

Karee Gowda, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), BSWML, said that bidders must either have an animal waste processing plant or a tie-up with such a plant, including clearance from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). There are several such plants on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Animal waste is usually recycled to animal food for fish, poultry, pets like dogs and cats, as it is rich in protein, he said. 

Bids will close on November 10. 

Construction and debris waste 

Mr. Gowda said that tenders for end-to-end C&D waste management were also finalised and have been placed before the government of Karnataka for approval. “We need to give the contractors land to build C&D waste processing plants. Of the three such plants to come up, land has been finalised for only one plant. We are actively working with the district administration to identify two more land parcels of at least 10 acres each,” he said. 

Under the new scheme, contractors will not only put up C&D waste processing plants of 1,000 TPD capacity, but also collect waste from doorsteps of generators in return for a tipping fee.

“In the earlier system, waste generators had to hand over the waste to the plant, which was often far away from the construction site. This did not work. We have been seeing C&D waste being indiscriminately dumped. Now, the contractors will pick up waste from the generators,” an official explained.