It may just be a pebble-sized initiative in the face of the staggering 800 odd tonnes of garbage that arrives at the Vellalore dumpyard every day, but sanitary workers of Coimbatore Corporation and young social entrepreneurs who call themselves Meipporul, are refusing to give up. They are waging a war, one bin at a time, against the waste our city so relentlessly produces.
As the Corporation hopes to implement Smart City initiatives, one of which is solid waste management, there are some wards that offer a glimmer of hope. Such as Kovaipudur.
ACC has supported the venture in this ward by sponsoring an e-bike that collects the organic waste, door to door.
It has been six months, and in Kovaipudur (Ward 90), 30 Sanitary Workers and 15 pushcarts are slowly but surely beating the odds and holding back nearly half a tonne of dry waste a day from reaching Vellalore.
The organic waste that they collect goes to vermi-composting and the sanitary waste goes to an incinerator.
Kovaipudur generates 300 to 400kgs of dry waste per day. And, instead of landing up at the landfill, it goes straight to recycling units.
Similarly, in Ward 67, 250-300 kgs of dry waste per day follows the same path.
Ward 71 (Race Course) is aiming for ‘bin-free’ status. At present six pushcarts collect 200 kgs of dry waste for recycling. After Deepavali there will be 13 pushcarts. The Commissioner himself has requested this.
In a gated community like Parsns on Nanjundapuram Road, 100-150 kgs of dry waste is collected a day.
From the remaining organic waste a portion goes to the Biomas Gassifier Crematorium.
This waste management is not just confined to residential zones (which do produce huge amounts of waste) and Meiporul is moving to a commercial area as well.
Soon, the effort will move to commercial zones such as Raja Street (Ward 80) where with just three pushcarts at the moment, the amount of dry waste collected is 100 kgs. Simplistic as it may sound, if efforts such as these are supported by the civic body and the residents, solid waste management in the city may not raise so much of a stink.
To know more mail Meipporul2015@gmail.com
