On Independence Day, the Coimbatore Corporation recognised the efforts of many a civil society organisations, including that of ‘No Dumping’ team.
The team, since January this year, has collected waste in a segregated fashion from gated communities and apartments, two wards, the Coimbatore airport and another places – 22, in all – and processed the waste.
Handing out the award, Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan said that team’s effort was commendable and that the civic body planned to expand the waste collection to 50 wards in the city.
C. Prasanth of the ‘No Dumping’ team says that in the past seven months, the team has collected 15,275 kg organic wet waste, 2,64,607 kg inorganic dry waste and 9,598 kg unhygienic waste like sanitary napkins.
The team sends the organic waste to bio-gasifier plants, farmers and the Corporation’s vermin compost plant and segregated and sold recyclable dry waste to vendors. It sells the non-recyclable dry waste to ACC Cement company as alternative fuel resource and sent the unhygienic waste to safe landfill in Vellalore.
He says that the team makes “some money” by selling the recyclable dry waste but the money is not enough to sustain the operations. It gets support from the ACC Cement company that support it as part of its corporate social responsibility operations.
In the apartments, though, the team collects segregated waste at their doorstep. Before starting the operation, the team talked to apartment associations, brought them on board and then created awareness among women, the maids and also housekeeping staff.
Resident B. Sabari Sabthami of Lambodara Orchid Elegance apartments on Kannabiran Mill Road says that the association has given two bins and a bag to all the residents, who segregate the waste into organic wet, inorganic dry and unhygienic waste. Initially, there were hiccups but now almost all residents are following the practices, she adds.
Now the team has reached out to colleges as well. On Wednesday, it kick-started the drive at the CMS College of Science and Commerce.
