The Tambaram Municipality in Tamil Nadu had started an initiative much before the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which was launched last October. The municipality had introduced the ‘Tambaram Bins’ in February 2014, and replaced regular open top bins with three closed top structures of green, white and red colour, made of galvanised steel. The colours indicate degradable, non- degradable and bio-medical waste, each with a capacity to hold nearly 600 kgs. A set of bins cost about Rs. 4.50 lakh.

In the pilot phase, bins were installed in five locations along the busy Mudichur Road, where overflowing bins were a common sight and the stench all pervading. According to an official within a year the locality saw a stark difference. Around 80 per cent of the residents in the areas where the bins are located now segregate and dispose off their own waste. “Where once the area was unclean and stinking due to perpetual littering, there now are no signs of littered garbage,” said the official.

This positive development has prompted the municipality to expand the project within its limits with tenders already called for the installation of similar structures in another 10 wards. “We will install the ‘Tambaram bins’ in 157 locations at a cost of Rs 8.76 crore,” the official added.

Making residents responsible for their own garbage in this way was more effective than door-to-door collection and segregation, officials added. “A few city Corporations had tried door-to-door collection but it all failed primarily because the conservancy workers’ timings would not match the schedule of the residents,” an official said. With the Tambaram bins, on the other hand, conservancy workers are only required to clear the garbage once in every six days. “This has allowed us to reassign conservancy workers for other operations in the wards,” an official said.