MANGALORE: Waste is gold so goes an adage. Waste generated in the city will indeed be worth its weight if the Mangalore City Corporation adopts an idea floated by DC V Ponnuraj during a cleanliness campaign undertaken by various agencies in the city over the weekend as a policy. The idea is for the citizens to sell their waste to recycling centres that the civic body would set up, from where it is, in turn, sold to waste recyclers. 

Ponnuraj told TOI here on Monday that the idea of "buying" waste from the citizens and, in turn, recycling it is still in its formative stage. This is something that the MCC should seriously give a thought to, he said adding that it would take forward the idea that the city is collectively responsible for the waste that it generates. It is also an idea that the waste generated is scientifically disposed and not haphazardly, he said. 

MCC commissioner K N Vijaya Prakash observed that this idea would become feasible only when people become self-aware about the concept of segregation of waste at source. "People are so habituated to dumping all their waste in one pile and no idea about what segregation at source is all about. Once segregation starts at source (at homes), waste can indeed become useful and earn people income," he noted. 

DC said the whole principle behind this idea is for citizens to bring solid waste to the recycling centres where they would be paid based on the weight. This in turn would then be sold to recyclers for a consideration. The city corporation would first invest and then recover value of waste from recyclers. The corporation would have to hard sell this idea not with the idea of earning revenue but to promote the idea of garbage disposal. 

This idea is expected to get a fillip once the civic body goes in for door-to-door collection of garbage, which would be made compulsory once the corporation adopts the new three-package system.