Prabha Kudva of Mannagudda congratulated The Hindu for the “wonderful coverage of the waste management issues” and hoped that citizens and officials “have woken up!” Ms. Kudva has also sent a series of photographs of waste lying in Mannagudda ward.
And, in response to the appeal by reader K. Sankaran, Director of Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management, for suggestions to make the campus (or individual houses) handle waste efficiently, Ms. Kudva said:
1. Firstly, segregate at the source from hostel, canteen, and household waste on a daily basis into wet waste, dry waste, and hazardous waste...Wet waste should be collected everyday. Dry and hazardous wastes should be collected on designated days and no wet waste should be tied up in plastic bags but be placed in buckets.
2. Dry waste can be disposed of by having an agreement with a scrap dealer. There are a number of them who will buy most of the recyclable D waste.
3. Rest of the dry waste and hazardous waste should go to a land fill. Hazardous waste like used mosquito coil can poison even one square metre of compost.
4. Wet waste may be dealt within the campus as follows: a) Renowned companies … have plants of different capacities producing methane from waste which may be used for cooking. But hostels generally remain closed during holidays and as such a better solution is to use the gas to run gas turbines to produce electricity for street lighting of the campuses. There is one such project executed in Mangalore by MCC still not fully operational with teething troubles due to lack of will perhaps.
b) For staff households on the campus there is a fantastic smell-free method to compost in the house itself. For this you may access www.dailydump.org
c) For multistoreyed buildings of staff, the option could be the trouble free vermin-composting pioneered by Prof. Harish Joshy, a retired professor of St Alyosius College, who can be reached on ph: 9900094951.
Ward committees
Padmanabh Ullal, a retired engineer who served government agencies, suggested setting up of ward committees is necessary to ensure all-round growth of the city, including handling of solid waste in a better manner. He said people should realise they have a role to play in this vital area.
