The Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has qualified for the semifinals of the prestigious SKOCH, Order-of -Merit Award-2025 for successfully implementing the digitized quick response (QR) code model to monitor and streamline the daily door-to-door waste management process. 

Instituted in 2013, the SKOCH Award, which is termed the highest independent honour in India recognizes people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation by effective governance towards scientific waste management and achievements in various fields. Buoyed by the success of the pilot project which was launched in one of the wards in October-2023, the civic administration had expanded the mechanism across the twin-city on the virtue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding by corporate houses.

Saddled with a daunting task of disposing and segregating a quantum of around 550 tonnes of garbage generated by the twin-city every day, the MBMC launched the QR code model as a pilot project by involving some of the households in ward number 13 in the first phase which was later extended to other wards. Consequently, the percentage of segregation at source jumped from 45% to 90%. 

During waste collection, the sanitary workers scan the unique QR code affixed at the entrance of the house and record their feedback, to make sure whether the segregation of waste was done at the source or not. The workers then click photographs of bins which are dumped with non-segregated garbage and upload them on a software which has been designed and developed by a start-up under the flagship project of the central government to encourage innovative ideas, start-up culture and entrepreneurship.

Sanitation department officials monitor the software to conduct a detailed study of the output and approach non-complying households to create awareness about the importance of their role in supporting the mechanism to achieve 100 % success. 

Extending his appreciation to citizens and employees for their dedication and hard work, civic chief- Radhabinod A. Sharma said, “The MBMC has been recognized as a semi-finalist in the prestigious SKOCH Award for our QR-based Digital Waste Management initiative through the Swachh MBMC App. This achievement is a testament to the innovation and commitment of our entire team and valued stakeholders. However, this is just the beginning. Our vision is to transform Mira Bhayandar into a model livable city, and achieving this requires continuous efforts and active citizen participation.” 

Apart from the 550 tonnes of garbage, an additional quantity of more than 10 ten tonnes is generated in the form of industrial and bio medical waste. 

However, the quantity of segregation at source continues to hover around 72 percent. 

As per provisions of the municipal solid waste management rules, it is binding upon societies and individual to segregate waste at source. Notably, the MBMC had bagged the SKOCH award in 2019 for effectively recycling Nirmalaya (floral waste) into organic manure by setting up a mini vermi-compost project.