Over 10 years ago, MRC Nagar, which consists of many gated communities and sections with individual houses, took up source segregation, when the concept had not caught on. The initiative however lost steam along the way, but was revived in a big way in August 2014. From there, the waste management programme has been going from strength to strength.
The credit for the revival should largely go to the women-residents of the locality. In Feburary 2014, Arulpriya, a resident of Rani Meyyammai Towers, got in touch with the Corporation Commissioner — at that time, Vikram Kapur was at the helm — and ensured that segregation of waste at source took off at her community.
And then, Priya Ramkumar, a resident of Jains Sagarika, contacted Earth Recyclers to ensure dry waste was being collected from the residential units in her community. Priya received immense support from many other residents at her community.
Seeing this, I was convinced that the time was ripe for the revival of source segregation in the whole of MRC Nagar. We realised it could be done through MRC Nagar Residents Association includes gated communities and individual houses in the locality. I can recall how Arulpriya, Priya and I would go from house to house, distributing pamphlets and motivating residents to practise source segregation of waste. And slowly, the team grew bigger and to create awareness, we organised a walkathon at MRC Nagar. The walkathon was linked to the inauguration of a compost pit and since then, composting is taking place at MRC Nagar.
(Asha Muralidharan is a treasurer of MRC Nagar Residents' Association)
