The Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on Monday (July 16) was informed by the ASG Pinky Anand appearing for L-G that Delhi govt is employing a technique in which garbage is compressed at landfill site, Okhla as recommended by an expert committee and is viable. However, that technique also includes plastic.

Opposing the technique as proposed by ASG, amicus senior advocate Colin Gonsalves filed documents to show how the garbage was being managed at Gurugram and Nagpur municipalities without maintaining landfill sites and sought two weeks time to submit the report on the feasibility to be replicated in New Delhi.

When the court asked why plastic, which is non biodegradable, was still in the compacted garbage for landfills – with garbage included, the soil becomes impervious to water hence there is no water seeping down to the depths – the commissioner of Gurugram informed the court that this was the method advocated by the expert committee.

Earlier, as per the directions of court, Commissioner of Gurugram Yashpal appeared and said that Gurugram was processing 1500 tonnes of garbage per day collected from Gurugram and Faridabad while using it to prepare manure and also producing energy without being maintaining the landfill site like in New Delhi.

The matter was posted for next hearing to September 16.

The bench was hearing a plea related to implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules.

—India Legal Bureau