Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 30: Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to impose fine on citizens who are found mixing used masks with dry or wet waste instead of segregating them as sanitary waste.

With the stricter implementation of lockdown rules, many people have been using masks now. As the police also keep insisting that masks should be worn when venturing out of the homes, the people are making it a point to wear them. But these masks have created a new problem for the civic workers as people have been found mixing the used masks with the waste and discarding them.

In the city, a large number of such cases have been reported. If the masks have coronavirus, the disease can spread fast if the masks are treated as normal waste. Therefore, BBMP has tightened its waste disposal rules. It has said that for the first instance of mixing the masks with other waste Rs 1,000 would be levied as fine. For repeating the mistake, fine of Rs 2,000 is payable and waste from that house will not be collected thereafter.

BBMP wants people to treat masks as sanitary waste. This measure is being taken as some experts have warned that the civic workers engaged in sorting out the waste can contract this disease. The BBMP has also decided to impose fine for spitting in pubic as it can promote the spread of coronavirus.

Masks made of clothes last longer. They can be reused after washing with soap. After some days, instead of throwing them in the garbage bin, they can be burnt down, some experts have suggested.