On Tuesday, the Coimbatore Corporation officials led by Commissioner G. Latha will hold a meeting with Councillors Venthamarai Balu (Ward 44), S.J. Ashok Kumar (Ward 51), M. Malarvizhi (Ward 67), and S.K. Nijaam (Ward 98) to discuss ways to implement the zero waste management project.
The discussion will be based on the experience the civic body gained in implementing the project in association with ICLEI, an NGO, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), Siruthuli, ITC, and a few other organisations in Ward 23 (R.S. Puram).
The civic body and the organisations created awareness among residents of Ward 23 on the need to segregate waste into wet and dry, distributed bins and bags and then taught the residents ways to segregate the waste.
The ICLEI-funded scheme ‘Shunya — zero waste management project’ saw the residents segregate waste, and the conservancy workers of the area sell off the recyclable waste to the ITC.
R. Raveendran, Honorary Secretary, RAAC, said that the workers had collected nearly five tonnes plastic and of those one or two workers had done exceedingly well in that they had earned hundreds by selling the waste to the ITC.
Now the corporation would be extending the project minus ICLEI support to the four Wards.
The corporation had had a discussion with the assistant commissioners and other officials of all the five Wards on Saturday last. It had decided to meet the Councillors of the four Wards to enlist their support and discuss modalities to extend the scheme, said Commissioner G. Latha.
By this week, the corporation officials, Councillors and conservancy workers would go campaigning door-to-door asking residents to segregate waste. After they begin segregating the waste, the officials-workers team would follow up to ensure that the residents segregated the right way. If they failed to segregate the waste, the corporation would be forced to serve notices on residents, said the Commissioner.
In Ward 23, the corporation was in the process of talking to owners of commercial establishments to follow the waste segregation system. It was in the process of setting up the bio-gas plant to treat wet waste and placing red bins to dump sanitary napkins and other wastes that did not come under the wet and dry waste category.
