Bengaluru’s goal of 100% solid waste collection proves that inefficient waste management can be turned around using digital mapping to inform waste collection and transportation systems.
With several closed landfills, an ineffective solid waste management system, and unreliable data to accurately plan effective collection and transportation, Bengaluru needed a re-set in its approach to solid waste management. In 2013, in collaboration with Center for Public Problem Solving, the city launched a process to create a geographic information system-based model for its solid waste management, and is now ready to roll it out in almost half the city. GIS is a system that can store, analyze, and share mapped geographic information, such as decentralized infrastructure and existing vehicle routes, which are crucially important when planning waste collection and transportation.
The data-driven model enables a cost-efficient waste management system by using optimal route algorithms and automated rules for data collection. A better-planned, efficient, and accountable collection and transportation system is expected to reduce the distance over which waste travels by 80% and expand the door-to-door collection system to cover the entire city by 2016, resulting in CO2 reductions from the waste sector.
109 metric tons of CO2 expected to be avoided per year
The challenge
A complex city fabric and a high degree of informality were challenging effective solid waste management in Bengaluru, resulting in a waste collection rate of just 50%. Facing rapid urbanization, the government came up with the solution to create a GIS-based model to manage solid waste, ensuring a more efficient and reliable collection and transportation system.
Co-benefits
Economic Nineteen thousand jobs are expected to be created when the GIS model covers the entire city by 2016.
Health With door-to-door collection for the entire city, open burning and dumping of waste is minimized, reducing air and soil pollution.
Social The new norms of waste handling will ensure cleaner and healthier living conditions in vulnerable communities.
About Bengaluru
Bangalore, officially known as Bengaluru, is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of about 8.42 million and a metropolitan population of about 8.52 million, making it the third most populous city and fifth most populous urban agglomeration in India. Bangalore is sometimes referred to as the “Silicon Valley of India” because of its role as the nation’s leading information technology exporter and is the second fastest-growing major metropolis in India.
