Expressing concern over the city's waste dumping grounds pushing their limits, the Delhi High Court today said the government and civic bodies should think of "proper waste segregation and its disposal".
"The three landfill sites in Delhi are beyond the maximum permissible heights," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva observed.
It is clear that the landfill sites was full, so it can be saved through segregation, utilisation and recycling, it said, adding this can be done if the organic, solid and plastic wastes are properly segregated.
The court also said most of the biodegradable waste can be used to generate energy.
"Plastic and metallic waste can be recycled. Therefore it is paramount that all the three civic bodies of the national capital and other authorities concerned should pay attention to ensure that proper waste segregation and its disposal is carried out," the bench said.
It also said that there are adequate provision under the law with regard to segregation of waste and protection of the environment, but unless the authorities have a feeling nothing will happen.
The court's order came during hearing of a PIL initiated by it on its own on the issue of air pollution in the national capital caused by landfill sites and the fires that break out frequently there.
The amicus curiae appointed by the court to assist it on the issue said the presence of the three landfill sites in Delhi - Bhalswa (in the northwest), Okhla (southeast) and Ghazipur (east) is primarily responsible for the danger.
While the three sites are already overflowing and have reached saturation point, the situation becomes scarier with the daily release of garbage, the amicus told the court.
Taking note of it the court directed the local bodies to "swing into action, so that segregation is given most priority.
"We hope that the exercise would be completed within six months," the court said, adding Stockholm and other cities have waste to energy plant, "so the local bodies should examine the same and try to adopt the procedure which fits to our rules".
