From the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam 200-feet Radial Road, the Perungudi landfill resembles an advancing enemy. This Corporation landfill has eaten into the Pallikaranai marsh. Through legal-bureaucratic exercises, its advance is said to have been checked and the marsh protected. However, from time to time, marsh watchers complain of “enemy” incursions.
Clearly, battles against this enemy have to be fought at various levels. And the fiercest one by the residents of Chennai. They have to develop a zero-waste mentality, ensuring that most of their waste finds new uses.
Fortunately, there is already a fighting regiment stationed nearby — residents of the IT corridor. Here, awareness about best waste management practices seem to be growing at a steady pace.
Recently, a representative of a waste management solutions provider told this writer that his company was carrying out a test run of its new recycling programme meant for Chennai. Here are the two reasons he gave for choosing Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) for the pilot project. One, there are many gated communities there, and some of these seem to be clued into best practices in waste management.
Two, as a landfill is found smack in the middle of their region, these residents should be aware of the magnitude of the problem.
I have heard a few software professionals employed on OMR expressing their anger over the landfill. But I think there is still a case for presenting the landfill as the symbol of the problem waste, to large sections of the IT Corridor. There are many schools on OMR and these should include the Perungudi landfill in their civic and environment science projects.
Videos on the Perungudi landfill can be played for the students. IT companies can take its employees to the section where landfill is located, with subject matter experts to throw light on the issues around it. And residents’ associations can do the same for its members. It is waste tourism, and it is necessary.
