On September 16, 2018, residents of Olpad tehsil in Surat gathered to protest against a solid waste disposal plant in Bhandut. They claimed that the 50acre land selected for the proposed plant by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) was productive land and that no consultation was held with them on the matter nor were they provided any compensation by the government. People use the land for cattle breeding, farming and milk production. They said if the authorities went ahead with the plan, they would take out a huge rally from Jahangirpura to the SMC office on October 1. Although the rally did not take place, some villagers went and spoke with SMC officials, who did not provide them with any assurance, dismissing the land in question as unproductive due to its salinity content. One of the villagers is quoted as saying, "We talk about smart villages but keep acquiring them in the name of development. The state government has taken away 300 hectares of land from in and around Bhandut for different reasons so far. How can the villagers do cattle breeding, milk production and farming if a waste disposal plant is set up here?" Earlier in 2018, the National Green Tribunal's Pune bench had asked the SMC to shift its solid waste disposal plant from Khajod village within 18 months, as the Khajod dumping site had turned into a major source of pollution, affecting around five lakh people. Subsequently, the SMC had identified three plots of land in Bhandut and Mandroi in Olpad tehsil and in Wankinada in Surat to shift its solid waste disposal site. In 2019, a BJP member of the SMC's standing committee stated that they have finalised a plot but cannot disclose the location just yet. As of January 2020, the Khajod dumping site remains functional.