Chennai Corporation makes four-way waste segregation mandatory, warns of penalties

CHENNAI: In a major move to tackle the chronic challenge of waste management, an issue that has only been rising as years pass by, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has made source segregation of municipal waste mandatory across the city. The civic body also warned that violations of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026, would attract penalties and other action.

Under the latest directive, every waste generator, including households, commercial establishments, institutions, government offices, apartments and bulk waste generators, must segregate waste into four categories before handing it over to the corporation’s cleanliness workers.

Wet waste, including food and other biodegradable waste, must be placed in the green bin, while dry waste such as paper, plastic, metal, glass and other recyclables must go into the blue bin. Sanitary waste such as diapers and sanitary napkins must be wrapped separately and placed in the red bin. Batteries, bulbs, e-waste, expired medicines, and chemicals must be kept separately as domestic hazardous/special-care waste in the black bin.

The battery-operated vehicles used for collection have also been provided with four colour-coded bins to ensure that the segregated waste does not get mixed after the workers collect it.

The GCC has instructed conservancy workers in all 200 wards to collect only source-segregated waste through the door-to-door collection system.

The directive comes weeks after the corporation launched a 40-day door-to-door awareness campaign in South Chennai, initially targeting 50,000 households across five zones, to encourage residents to segregate waste.

On August 22, the corporation launched the "Segregate Waste–Save Tomorrow" campaign, conducting door-to-door awareness drives. In the first phase, 1,000 households in each of the five zones in the southern part of the city were provided with bags for collecting non-biodegradable waste separately, with the programme planned to be expanded to 50,000 households.

According to the civic body, source segregation would enable better recycling and composting and reduce the quantity of waste sent to landfills.

Failure to segregate waste at source or violation of the 2026 rules may attract penalties and other action under the applicable rules and municipal laws, it warned.

BIN IT RIGHT

• Green bin: Wet waste, including food and other biodegradable waste

• Blue bin: Dry waste such as paper, plastic, metal, glass and other recyclables

• Red bin: Sanitary waste such as diapers and sanitary napkins

• Black bin: Batteries, bulbs, e-waste, expired medicines and chemicals

• 6,150 tonnes municipal solid waste generated daily in GCC limit

• Wet/biodegradable: 28.03%

• Plastics: 9.63%

• C&D waste: 5.05%

• Household hazardous: 0.07%