Ashiana apartment in Venus Colony, Alwarpet, is arguably one of the first gated communities in Chennai to turn into premises into a green zone.
Let's not waste
The first drive taken up by the community had to do with composting. Fortunately, the builder had created a composting pit on the premises. In 2007, a few residents of the community kick-started a pilot project in two blocks.
The association asked the residents to buy separate bins. The sweepers designated for each block collect the kitchen waste and put it in the compost bin. The manure was used in the community garden. When the project succeeded, the exercise was implemented at the other eight blocks of the 175-unit facility.
Residents continue the practice even today.
“Of course, it took many rounds of evangelisation to start this. We discouraged residents from using a plastic bag to line the bin. We asked them to instead do some quick cleaning with water,” says Bhuvana, who was part of the pilot project.
In 2016, the association formed Aashiana Green Club with the objective of going zero-waste. One of the first steps was to segregate the recyclable waste.
Considering the difficulty in maintaining more than two bins in the kitchen, one big blue bin was placed at the entrance of every block. Recyclables such as paper, plastic, aluminium, glass items and bottles are to be disposed of in the bin, which is thoughtfully labelled “recyclable bin” instead of “waste bin”.
A common e-waste bin is placed at the association’s office.
A waste collector clears the bins twice a week.
“Luckily, this agent is completely aware of the environmental hazards of mixed waste going to landfills. He takes these recyclables to his factory in the outskirts of the city and turns it into a mass substance. These are then sold to various vendors to make buckets or other articles,” says Anita Hedge, a resident.
Residents had to maintain a green bin for kitchen waste and a red bin for landfill. The latter consists of non-recyclable waste such as sanitary napkins, diapers, shards of broken glass, dust and tufts of hair.
“Collecting waste from the residents was a challenge. But even tougher was training the domestic help,” admits Bhuvana. “So, we organised training sessions for the cooks and maids, and incentivise them appropriately.”
For residents, each block is named the block of the month, provided they fulfil certain criteria.
“We look at how each block has carried out the segregation.
When the blue bin is not full, it is evident that segregation has not been carried out effectively. If food containers are not washed and disposed of, the waste collector does not collect it. If the segregation is not carried out appropriately, representatives from each block click a photo and post it on the WhatsApp group, requesting those responsible to do the needful,” says Sudha Bharat, another member of the association.
In order to avoid contributing to the waste, many residents carry their own water bottles and shopping bags.
Let's save it
The association also takes simple conscious efforts to save resources, such as switching to LED streetlights and rainwater harvesting system.
Since 2007, greywater from the kitchen in the four blocks is being collected and redirected to water the plants in the community garden. Gravel, mud and charcoal are used to filter the water.
“In fact, the overhead tanks have three pipes — grey water for bathrooms, filtered water that goes to the garden and reverse osmosis for drinking water,” explains Latha Navneet. Since the last three years, residents have replaced painted idols with soft mud idols for Ganesh Chathurthi. These are immersed in drums of water. The liquid mud is then put back in the soil.
