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| | =[[Delhi: waste management]]= | | =[[Delhi: waste management]]= |
| | See: [[Delhi: waste management]] | | See: [[Delhi: waste management]] |
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| − | ==Delhi: the Dev family of Pushpanjali==
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| − | [[File: Steps to manage waste, segregate, compost and reuse.jpg|Steps to manage waste, segregate, compost and reuse; [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Gallery.aspx?id=21_09_2017_002_029_003&type=P&artUrl=3-STEP-SOLUTION-SEGREGATE-COMPOST-REUSE-21092017002029&eid=31808 The Times of India], September 21, 2017|frame|500px]]
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| − | '''See graphic:'''
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| − | ''Steps to manage waste, segregate, compost and reuse''
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| − | [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=How-a-family-of-6-manages-to-make-21092017002019 Paras Singh, How a family of 6 manages to make most of its waste useful, September 21, 2017: The Times of India]
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| − | While the civic agencies battle with the city's mounting garbage and overflowing landfill sites, in the middle of the thickly populated east Delhi, a family hardly generates any waste.
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| − | “All it took was a visit to a friend who was using the waste to make `black gold',“ said Priyanka Dev, a housewife at Pushpanjali, while holding the rich compost that she has prepared from last month's garbage. “Most of our waste is now used in the kitchen garden.“
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| − | From June 2016, Dev started using two bins -one for wet organic waste and another for dry waste. “There are some tricky things like wet milk pouches that need to be washed and kept between newspaper sheets to let them dry,“ she added.
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| − | Maids had to be taught about the change by working together for the first few weeks, children had to be led by example while adults had to be reminded. “It takes some effort and diligent supervision in the first month but gradually it becomes a habit for everybody . Once in a while if anybody forgets, pick up the garbage and segregate it yourself. Keep reminding.“
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| − | Out of the family's waste, 70-80% is kitchen and horticulture waste, 20-30% consists of dry plastic, wrappings and boxes while 2-3% is hazardous waste like sanitary napkins.“Zero waste is a myth but we can immensely reduce the share of waste we send to landfill sites,“ said Dev.
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| − | A khamba or household composter has helped the family in minimising its waste output. While wet waste is turned into compost over four-five weeks, plastic and newspapers are taken away by waste collectors from Chintan, an NGO. “Almost nothing else remains,“ Dev said.
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| − | E-waste -batteries, tubelights and bulbs -is collected at the community level in a cardboard box kept at the community centre as it is not generated in bulk amount. “For sanitary napkins, the ideal practice is to wrap them in newspapers and marked with a red circle so that the people dealing with waste don't touch it.“
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| − | “There is no smell at all.Smell comes only when the mixture starts rotting. If you just use dry waste (husk) and churn it, you will hardly realise that there is a pile of gar bage stored at a corner,“ she explained. For a family of six, Dev is using a Rs 2,800 variant of three pots but khambas are easily available in various sizes and materials.
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| − | The children have now become self-appointed ambassadors of the little project. A few days ago, Aryaman (10) was worried about where to throw off the stem of an apple and brought it back. “Avni now refuses to take polybags while buying ice-creams,“ Dev said.“They are in fact more excited about a new thing happening in the house.“ Kamlesh, the maid who has come from Chhattisgarh, neatly collects all kitchen waste after lunch, pours it in the topmost pot of Khamba, adds a layer of coconut husk and churns all. “In our village, we dig up a pit to dump kitchen waste. By monsoon, the manure is ready for the field.In a city , people don't have space for pits, so khamba seems good,“ she chuckled.
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| − | Harmful detergents and floor cleaners are also a no-go zone now. Dev makes concoction from orange peels and jaggery to clean floor and use vinegar with baking soda to clean toilet pots. “All these finely drafted laws will be of no use if we don't mend our ways,“ reminded Dev.
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| − | ==Gurgaon: Nirvana Country==
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| − | [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=This-Ggn-colony-has-got-Nirvana-by-sorting-21092017002025 Paras Singh, This Ggn colony has got Nirvana by sorting over 50% of its trash, September 21, 2017: The Times of India]
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| − | It does not take a gargantuan administrative system to enforce a waste-free community . Nirvana Country , an upscale residential colony in Gurgaon, has shown within a year of deciding to become a waste-free area that even 1,200 households can engage voluntarily in waste segregation and minimise the load sent to the Bandhwari landfill. Despite the stumbling blocks -actually, learning from them -the community has achieved over 55% segregation.
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| − | The waste generated by the Sector 50 colony comprises around 60% kitchen waste and 30% dry waste, the rest being unrecyclables such as sanitary napkins and diapers. The first step Nirvana Country took in dealing with this was to sensitise maids to the environmental burden of unsegregated waste, prudent since the upscale locality has a large force of maids working in the households, 3,000 according to an RWA member. “Many of the maids are from illiterate families, but with repeated messaging about segregation they can be made aware,“ said Monica Khanna Gulati, one of those spearheading the movement.
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| − | The message in the households was supplemented by the security guards, who were asked to remind the maids every day to segregate the waste. Maids who proved diligent were honoured at colony gatherings and occasions like Independence Day .
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| − | The project was initiated in only two of the colony's five blocks, but extended to the rest after achieving 85% segregation. The crucial executive part of the project was communication and prodding the community through digital platforms. The real work, including the distribution of red bins for rejected trash, green ones for organic waste and bags for dry material, began a year back, coinciding with the unveiling of the composter unit on August 15 last year.
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| − | “The garbage gatherers, most of them illiterate, were asked to list the houses that did not segregate their waste,“ Gulati revealed. “Dedicated volunteers calling themselves `segregation inspirers' then worked to convince the se families to fall in line.“ These 15 inspirers, who are professionals, scientists, even yoga instructors, are on a WhatsApp group and monitor the waste collection and utilisation of compost created.
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| − | Compostable waste is cleared of non-organic matters during a secondary segregation and fed into composters along with locally collected dry leaves and the activator. “The material takes three weeks to be composted. It is then cured in the open and sieved,“ explained Nitai Mohanti, a housekeeping staff engaged by the RWA in the composting.
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| − | The society now runs five 2,000-litre composting units, which churn out 1.5 tonne of good quality compost every month. “Much of this is used by the society for its 14 lawns, and the rest is sold at Rs10 per kg,“ said PS Kohli, former secretary of the RWA. Plastic waste culled during segregation is given to the trash collectors, who sell it and retain the proceeds as an incentive.
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| − | There were many problems the society encountered, of course, from the noise of the shredders to the composter developing cracks. But the community closed ranks to resolve them. Now, Nirvana Country segregates 55-65% of its waste.“In the second phase, we are going to ask garbage pickers to stop accepting the daily trash from households still resisting segregation,“ said Gulati.
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| − | The civic bodies too have installed composting units in colonies, but without popular involvement, they pretty much are gathering dust. As Nirvana Country has shown, engaging the community could be the right way forward.
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| | =Disposal of garbage on roads= | | =Disposal of garbage on roads= |
Revision as of 00:48, 22 September 2017
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.
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Region-wise
West Bengal
Kolkata: C40 Award for best solid waste management improvement project, 2016
NDTV, December 2, 2016
Kolkata, along with 10 other cities from across the globe, has been honoured with the best cities of 2016 award in recognition of its inspiring and innovative programme with regard to solid waste management.
"Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project has achieved 60-80 per cent (depending on site) segregation of waste at its source, with further waste segregation occurring at transfer stations," a media release said on the occasion of international summit of Mayors of millions plus cities of which Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi are its members from India.
"Forward looking, the project aims to eradicate open dumping and burning of waste and to limit the concentration of methane gas generated in landfill sites," it said.
Kolkata is the only Indian city to receive the prestigious award. It received the award during the C40 Mayors Summit held in Mexico City.
See: Delhi: waste management
Disposal of garbage on roads
The Indian Express, December 20, 2016
Throwing garbage in public can cost you Rs 10,000: NGT
Any person found disposing garbage in a public place will be fined Rs 10,000, the National Green Tribunal said.
The tribunal said that all authorities are under a statutory obligation to ensure that waste is collected, transported and disposed of in accordance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, so that it does not cause a public health hazard.
“All major sources of municipal solid waste generation – hotels, restaurants, slaughter houses, vegetable markets, etc, should be directed to provide segregated waste and hand over the same to the Corporation in accordance with the rules,” said NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar.
“Any institution, person, hotels, residents, slaughter houses, vegetable markets, etc, which do not comply with the directions and continue disposing waste over drains or public places, shall be liable to pay an environmental compensation at the rate of Rs 10,000 per default,” added Kumar.
Kumar said that the city generates 9,600 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste per day and there is no clear map ready with the municipal bodies to deal with the huge quantity of waste.
He also directed the commissioner of each corporation to submit a scheme, within a month, for providing incentive to encourage people to segregate waste at the source. The incentive could be by way of rebate in property tax, he added.
“Penalties can be imposed on residents, societies, RWAs etc, who do not provide segregated waste. It should be kept in mind that as per ‘polluter pays’ principle, each person would be liable to pay for the pollution they cause through waste disposal,” said Kumar.
“It is the duty of a citizen to ensure that said waste is handled properly and not add to the pollution or cause inconvenience to other persons. The entire burden cannot be shifted on the state and authorities,” he added.
