With the civic body convincing slums to start processing their own waste, more compost pits are set to come up in slums located in the western suburbs. After NGOs and women’s self-help groups started composting garbage in Gazdhar Bandh in Bandra (West) and Nehrunagar in Andheri (West), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has plans for three more.

Solid waste management department officials said compost pits will be installed in Kadeshwari and Khotwadi in Bandra (West) by next week. These will jointly convert about 100 kg garbage into manure at a time. Another slum in Versova will also get a composting pit, confirmed officials.

Under the Swachh Mumbai Prabhodhan Abhiyaan (SMPA) for slums, the BMC hopes to reduce the trash going to the city’s three dumping grounds.

Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner of the H/W (Bandra) ward, said the only problem was the space crunch. “The process has to be done just right so there is minimum smell and disturbance in the cramped slums. The pit sizes are customised for the amount of garbage the slum produces. We are trying to get tumblers for areas where there is space crunch,” said an official. “Two metric tonnes of trash collected from about 400 houses at Nehrunagar is being composted right now,” said Suraj Khandarkar, an expert who trains local NGOs.

“As many as 60 slums in the city have started treating their garbage. More need to join the initiative to reduce the city's garbage production by 150 to 200 metric tonnes," said Vijay Balamvar, deputy municipal commissioner for solid waste management.