A group of women at MRC Nagar, R.A. Puram, have been taking the trouble to educate their neighbours and persuade them to segregate waste at source before handing it over to conservancy workers.
Arul Priya, Priya Ramkumar, Aasha Muralidharan and Latha Suresh have been spearheading this campaign individually in their respective colonies.
Arul Priya did it in her apartment, Rani Meyammai Towers, and Priya Ramkumar in hers, Jains Sagarika. To carry forward their campaign, they have conducted a quiz, a drama and a competition on art from waste. Similarly, Aasha Muralidharan and Latha Suresh, who live in independent houses, have also been trying to motivating their neighbours to adopt the practice of segregating garbage at source. The four came together when they realised they were on the same page about garbage management, which attending periodical meetings of MRC Nagar’s Residents Welfare Association.
They convened a meeting, nearly two years ago, to which the Corporation Commissioner, Vikram Kapoor was invited. “At the meet, we asked for bins with red and green colours to be provided to every household at MRC Nagar. We also requested a land to be allocated for commissioning a composting plant at MRC Nagar. At this meet, a resolution was made that Ward 173 of Zone XIII will become a model ward and will set an example for other neighbourhoods,” says Arul Priya.
Since then, the green activists have been educating children, women, domestic helpers and others in their colony to segregate waste at source.
They faced a problem in the early days of their campaign. Though the organic waste was being cleared every day. There were no agencies to collect the non-degradable waste. If this could be tackled, then their campaign stood a good chance of succeeding.
“So we approached many agencies, one of which agreed to collect the non-degradable waste once in 45 days. Yet, that did not help us much,” says Arul Priya. A search was again launched for appropriate agency which would do this and Priya Ramkumar found Earth Recycler, a firm dealing with waste management. It agreed to collect the non-degradable waste on a day-to-day basis. “It was of immense relief with Earth Recyclers coming into play. Until then we had difficulty in convincing our neighbours that the exercise was practicable,” says Priya Ramkumar. At this juncture, residents of many independent houses joined in and extended their cooperation under the guidance of Asha Muralidharan, adds Priya Ramkumar.
“Ramky rendered its support by deploying a seven-member team to supervise the streets,” says Asha Muralidharan.
“ Most families are very co-operative and have embraced the concept. Nearly 450 households including apartments and independent houses are disposing waste in a responsible manner today, they say.
A two-year-long campaign has gained momentum in the last six months. For residents of MRC Nagar segregating waste at source has become second nature now.
“We planned to organise a walkathon on solid waste management, held last Sunday, and thought of inviting the Corporation Commissioner, Vikram Kapoor, once again to flag off the rally. So when our team met the Commissioner to invite him, he was happy to know that we have been continuing the effort untiringly for two years,” says Priya Ramkumar.
On the occasion, the Commissioner gave an assurance to speed up the process of allocating land for the composting plant and it was also decided that the plant would be inaugurated on the day of the walkathon. “ Latha Suresh and Earth Recycler played an instrumental role by meeting the officials concerned frequently,” say Arul Priya and Priya Ramkumar Now, these women are persuading the commercial establishments and institutions nearby to also segregate their waste.
“I approached the authorities at Ayyappan temple to segregate the flowers and dump it in a separate bin. They readily accepted our request and the compost plant was inaugurated by first dumping the flowers and leaves collected from the temple,” says Asha Muralidharan
“As of now, the plant has two to three pre-conditioning and vermincomposting pits. Ten more will be constructed,” says Mohammed Dawood of Earth Recycler.