Bangalore, India, overflowing in garbage

Bangalore, India, is overflowing with waste and with the city's last landfill set to close, the government says it's time to start recycling. Known throughout India as the Garden City because of its cleanliness, Bangalore has had an increase in the amount of trash it produces since it became a center for growing technology businesses in the 1980s, The New York Time reported. With more business came more trash. The city's last landfill is scheduled to be closed because the trash is polluting area lakes and land. "We never followed scientific landfill practices," said Rajneesh Goel, Bangalore's chief civil servant. "All that groundwater contamination is going to come to us; more than 300 of our lakes are already gone," he said. "The problem is getting out of hand, and eventually it will swallow us up. We have to do something." Kalpana Kar, who has served on Bangalore's waste management advisory for a decade, said it's time to turn to recycling to help the city's trash problem. The challenge, she said, will be convincing residents it's worthwhile. "People in India think that if their own house is clean, the problem just goes away," she said. "The city is at its knees. We don't have a choice."