The city Corporation will in December organise a national seminar on decentralised waste management, highlighting the civic body’s successful interventions in this regard over the past few years. Experts from the field of waste management from across the country will participate in the event, proposed to be held over three days.
The civic body has been over the past two years organising an annual green congress to draw students’ attention to waste management and environmental problems and equip them to put forth new ideas and draw up activities to counter them with the support of Green Army units in schools and other environmental organisations. The previous edition of the congress, held last year immediately after the unprecedented floods, was focussed on rebuilding Kerala.
The national seminar is being planned as a mega event clubbed with this year’s edition of the green congress.
“The green congress has garnered a lot of positive response from the student community, especially with initiatives like an exchange workshop with students from flood-affected areas. The national seminar is meant to step up the event to the next level in its third year. We have already sent invites to all the local bodies in the State, requesting them to share their experiences and their interventions in the area of decentralised waste management. Some of them have already sent their responses too. The Swachh Bharat Mission officials have been invited, along with other experts in waste management from across the country. Along with highlighting the Corporation’s achievements in decentralised waste management, it would also be an avenue to learn and discuss what we can do better,” said an official.
The city Corporation had made the switch to decentralised waste management after the closure of the centralised waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala in 2011, following protests. Since then, the civic body has introduced several waste management at source initiatives including kitchen bins, aerobic bins, material recovery facilities and periodic collection of different kinds of waste for recycling purposes.
