The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Greener Way, established in 2010, is coming up with plans to enhance its service within this year. The main plan is to repair the broken down garbage collection vehicles and compacters. There are also plans to procure additional vehicles to provide easy back up. Thimphu Thromde will also be donating vehicles to Greener Way.
Operational Head of Greener Way, Dorji Wangchuk, said there frequent vehicle break down which hampers the timing and frequency of waste collection. However, Greener Way has installed Global Positioning System (GPS) two months ago, which will ensure vehicles are used efficiently.
“We can easily monitor through GPS. It shows the detailed report about timings, root, distance and amount of fuel consumed due to which the drivers are more cautious in following the right pace… And even when we get some complaints, we can view GPS details and accordingly convince the people,” Dorji Wangchuk said.
He said that after the procurement of vehicles, specific timings of garbage collection will be provided to the people. Therefore, people need not have to listen to the signal of garbage truck siren or songs as exact timings will be provided.
Dorji Wangchuk said there are plans add additional service where residents can track the timings of garbage trucks through smart technology.
Such plans will be implemented only after the vehicles are repaired and new ones are purchased. Lack of spare parts for the old vehicles that are more than 15 to 20 old are a problem. Some of the spare parts are no longer produced.
“The lack of skilled mechanic in solving the spare parts difficulties and we are facing difficulties in even getting the simple running spare parts,” he said.
As of now, the spare parts are being modified in Bangladesh and some local mechanics. However, Greener Way said modified spare parts would hamper the other running spare parts.
“One main problem is with the compacters. It is being modified by local mechanics, which was repaired in their own way making the compacters even more complicated. Even if we show those to a highly experienced mechanics and electricians, it would not be understandable,” Dorji Wangchuk added.
The issue is being discussed with the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center (JESC) for the procurement of the genuine spare parts from Japan, and the assistance in providing the training of particular mechanic from Bhutan in Japan for required duration, to which the agreement was made to implement during the second phase towards the end of this year.
According to Greener Way, the cost of transportation and shipping is more expensive than the cost of the product. It is also difficult to contact the suppliers in Japan.
Meanwhile, Greener Way has plans to build compartments for waste disposal in all strategic locations so that the people need not have to wait for the timing of the garbage vehicles. This is expected to make things very convenient for the people as the waste can be disposed off at any time of the day.
Greener Way is currently constructing its office in Babesa. It is expected to complete in next two months where a conveyor belt of 50 meters will be installed for waste segregation. “We can improve the waste recovery by twice if we have the conveyor belt.”
Another plan in the pipeline is to install a weighing bridge which will maintain the exact amount of waste collected for the effective management of waste.
Dorji Wangchuk said, “We are very confident that all the problems will be solved very soon and bring an effective impact on society”
