The Haritha Keralam Mission and Suchitwa Mission are jointly launching the campaign ‘Freedom from Garbage’ from August 15, as part of evolving a comprehensive, yet decentralised, solution to garbage management issues across the State.
As a first step in all districts, trained volunteers would visit houses from August 6 to 13 to make an assessment of the current waste management practices and to create awareness on the safe disposal of garbage, Haritha Keralam Mission executive vice chairperson T.N. Seema and Suchitwa Mission executive director K. Vasuki, said at a press conference here on Monday.
Micro-level planning would be necessary for this initiative to be successful, which was why home visits and information on waste management at individual homes was important, they said. This would also help the mission advise people on the most suitable way of managing waste, including plastic waste.
Plastic or inorganic waste could be recycled if it was washed clean and dried and handed over to scrap dealers or the local bodies. Haritha Mission’s plan would be to help local bodies devise a decentralised waste processing and management plan so that it could be implemented and monitored in all places under its jurisdiction, they said. This included waste management not just in homes but shops, flat or office complexes or industrial units within its jurisdiction.
Separate community-level waste management plans would also be evolved to manage garbage from houses which did not have space for managing garbage. The plan was to complete the preparation of the garbage processing and management plans of all local bodies by September 15 and to put these plans into action on November 1.
The volunteers were being given extensive training in organising and management through the Kerala Institute of Local Administration, they said.
