The Manali zone seems to have set a benchmark in waste management. Credit for it should go to the northern section of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). In October 2015, Global Safety Trust, a city-based voluntary organisation, stepped forward to encourage source segregation of waste among residents.
Raising awareness about the issue, it was working a perfect foil to the Corporation, which would send its conservancy staff to collect segregated waste.
This system worked like a charm in Arulanandham Nagar in Zone 2 (Manali), among nearly 1,000 households there.
The collection drive suffered a setback due to the floods in December 2015, but bounced back in February 2016. It steadily spread to other parts of zone. In some streets, animators were appointed to create awareness among residents. The conservancy staff would clean the streets day and night.
“Our conservancy staff learned the ropes during the time the NGO was on board,” recalls S. Divyadarshini, Regional Deputy Commissioner (North), GCC.
According to the reports by the Corporation team handling the drive, waste from Manali going to Kodungaiyur dumping ground has reduced from 55 metric tonnes to 20 metric tonnes.
“Six months after re-starting the project, we implemented the binless concept. We took away the bins from every street. There would be just one bin placed strategically for a few streets. Despite the absence of bins, some people felt tempted to throw garbage in the spot where a bin would be kept. Residents would however dissuade this behaviour. As they did not like the idea of long walk to a bin, some residents started keeping the garbage within their respective premises. We used this opportunity to start door-to-door collection,” says the official.
As a result, the number of compactor bins in Manali reduced from 265 to 67. These bins are placed only in commercial areas. “There are 22 recovery resource centres in the zone, where residents can dispose of their garbage if they could not hand over the waste to the waste collector. We decided to first focus on Ward 20, as this signifies the meeting of the old and new town. As this was a developed and planned settlement, we found it easy to carry out the door-to-door collection here. We took it to other wards last year.”
Good quality plastic is separated from non-biodegradable waste, boxed or shredded and stored to be sold to private vendors. “We are still in the process of identifying a vendor for the rest of the non-biodegradables, such as leather, shoes and mattresses.”
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