Bengaluru: Residents living around Mandur, east Bengaluru, long affected by a sprawling garbage dump and its environmental risks, may finally see relief with civic authorities launching phase 2 of biomining work to scientifically clear decades of legacy waste.Mandur, one of the city’s oldest dump sites, holds an estimated 22 lakh tonnes of accumulated waste. The clean-up is being carried out in phases, using scientific processing and segregation to maximise material recovery rather than mere removal.Phase 2 covers over 10 lakh tonnes of legacy waste, of which more than 9 lakh tonnes have already been processed. Screening machines segregate the waste into multiple fractions, reducing the volume that ultimately requires disposal.Bio-earth forms the largest share of recovered material, with over 3.9 lakh tonnes — about 62% of the processed waste — generated as stabilised organic matter. Of this, 40,592 tonnes have been supplied to farmers for use as a soil conditioner, officials said.Refuse derived fuel (RDF) accounts for 76,899 tonnes (12%), with 30,167 tonnes already transported to the waste-to-energy plant operated by Karnataka Power Corporation Limited for power generation.The remaining fractions include over 1.1 lakh tonnes of inert material (18%), 32,041 tonnes of recyclables (5%) and 19,225 tonnes of construction and demolition waste (3%), all of which are being routed through authorised recycling and disposal channels.Karee Gowda, CEO of Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited, said the focus was on converting old dumps into usable resource streams. “Through scientific biomining and segregation, we are recovering and reusing maximum material. Bio-earth is going to farmers, RDF is used for energy, and only a small fraction remains inert,” he said, calling phase 2 a key milestone in accelerating the clean-up.Officials said the project would significantly reduce environmental risks such as groundwater contamination, methane emissions, and dump fires, while reclaiming land buried under decades of waste.
