Odisha Online: Rourkela Logs In To Digital Garbage Collection

Rourkela: To strengthen the waste collection system, including the cleanliness of public and community toilets, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) has introduced the quick response (QR) code-enabled door-to-door garbage collection system.

The civic body, under its Advanced Waste Management System (AWMS), has introduced a new system to improve door-to-door waste collection monitoring systems and overcome the challenges such as sanitation staff skipping houses.

“We are focusing on 100 per cent collection of segregated household wastes to process them at the Micro Composting Centers (MCCs) and Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). For this purpose, the battery-operated vehicles (BOVs) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) have been engaged to collect the garbage,” RMC Commissioner Dibyajyoti Parida said.

He said the Swachha Sathis, supervisors and several NGOs of the city are also sensitizing the residents to segregate household waste into dry and wet and give it to the sanitation workers separately every day.

The awareness campaign is being carried out regarding using coloured bins or separate dustbins for segregating the waste so that it will be easy for the waste-collecting vehicles to collect the segregated waste from the households.

“Following complaints by some residents and shopkeepers that the vehicles are not turning up to collect waste in time, RMC  has proposed to fit a QR code enabled waste management system at households to alert the sanitation workers and vehicles and inform them about the households, which are not covered, “Parida added.

He further said that the RMC has introduced QR code-enabled waste management system under its ambit, as it will monitor door-to-door segregation of garbage across the city. It will also strengthen the initiatives being taken for Swachh Survekshan.

Individual households will be given a QR code tag, while apartments or flats will be clubbed as a single entity with a common QR code, he added.

The sanitation workers visiting their respective wards will scan the QR code with a cell phone through the mobile application, record the data, including quantum of collection, date and time of collection and household coverage. Every day, the system will generate data such as the number of houses covered and those who failed to hand over waste and update the control room at the RMC office for follow-up action, he said.

Initially, the system will be enabled for 10,000 households and buildings including the public and community toilets on a pilot basis. After successful implementation of the pilot project, efforts will be made to cover all the households and buildings in all wards.

Parida further said that the QR code tags at the community and public toilets will have a feedback system, by which the users of the toilets can rate their experiences about the cleanliness and effective management of the toilets.

Under the AWMS, all RMC vehicles, including auto-tippers, BOVs, are equipped with GPS to track their movement and evaluate the coverage of door-to-door garbage collection.

“If a worker fails to scan the QR code or collect garbage from any household, we will know it immediately,” Parida said, adding that the goal is to improve the waste collection system by keeping a vigil on the entire process from the source to the disposal point and address the shortcomings.