It became abundantly clear that a real waste disposal system must be put into place for the first time in the history of the city. Trucks were hired in 1990 to remove waste from within the city and take it to designated areas. A common practice by farmers during this period was to pay the truck drivers to dump their load of waste on their fields, which was quite a profitable practice for the drivers, as they made money and did not have to drive long distances to the waste disposal sites. (7) However, this practice ended soon after as the farmers found that there were too many dry wastes in the truck loads that destroyed their fields and contaminated ground water. The drivers now had to find a new way to rid themselves of their waste loads without having to drive all the way to the designated disposal sites. They discovered that it was possible, and legal, to simply dump their loads just beyond the city limits, along the side of country roads. (8)
This newfound practice angered many citizens as the waste made their living conditions very unpleasant.The roads were often blocked by some of the garbage that had piled up and this created many traffic flow problems. The truck drivers also began the practice of burning the garbage to compact it, so more could be dumped in the same areas. The burning of the garbage, much of which was made of plastic and released toxic gases when burned, reduced the quality of air the rural residents had to breathe as well. (9)
In the city, life was not much better. The citizens were required by law to separate their wet and dry wastes for collection. The idea of this practice was good and accepted widely by the citizens in theory. However, the wet and dry waste was collected by the same truck daily and simply mixed together, rendering the work the citizens had done to separate it useless. This resulted in many citizens simply dumping the wastes into the streets and in alleyways, making the experience of living in the city undesirable. (10)
One citizen, Almitra H. Patel, was so disgusted by the situation surrounding her rural home and the conditions that she was forced to live in, she wrote to the government,demanding better living conditions and a better system with which to deal with Bangalore's deteriorating state and health conditions. (11) She outlined her position on the state of waste disposal in Bangalore in 9 objections and suggestions:
1. Plastic bags ruined the century old practice of simply recycling wastes into the soil of farmers fields, but a ban on plastic bags is not the answer to Bangalore's problems.
2. Something must be done about the careless disposal of plastic bags.
3. The problem of Bangalore is not a lack of civic discipline, but a lack of Municipal discipline.
4. Wet and dry wastes should be collected weekly by separate trucks to be disposed of properly.
5. There must be legislation saying that only wet wastes such as food, flower and fruit wastes should be collected daily to be composted.
6. Plastic bags should be collected and shredded to be used in the process of fixing bitumen roads.
7. All plastic and glass bottled products should have a deposit on them upon purchase that would be refunded upon the return of the empty container.
8. Keep plastic milk pouches as they are and recycle them, as they are extremely helpful in preventing disease.
9. Implement a programs where if you return 20 empty packages of a certain product, you get one new product (of the same variety) free.
(12)
Almitra Patel took her proposal to the supreme court of India, whom instituted a counsel of people to review the situation of waste disposal all over India and implement a plan with which waste would be disposed of properly. (13) In 2001, the Bangalore City Corporation gave the city 3 sites on which they could safely dump their wastes. However, these sites were mistreated and wastes were once again not sorted. This caused the land to become unusable, and the sites to fill quickly. The roads leading to the sites filled with wastes quickly as well. (14)
Factories were implemented to process compostable materials, as well as recyclables, but they could only keep up with a fourth of the amount of waste the city produced in a day. These factories were soon shut down because they became worn out due to over use. (15)
To this day, no permanent solution has been reached for the disposal of wet waste products in Bangalore and the living conditions continue to deteriorate in the slums. (16)
