A unique initiative by a village in waste disposal

A Palakkad village collects, segregates and disposes of all its wastes

DREAM REALIZED:The solid waste collection and processing centre started under a citizen initiative at Edatheruvu village inside Palakkad municipality on Sunday.

At a time when some parts of Palakkad municipality are under the threat of getting affected by various epidemics due to piling up of garbage, village Edatheruvu stands out due to a unique citizen initiative aimed at collection, segregation and scientific disposal of the waste from as many as 160 households.

The village, which started the initiative five years ago, started a waste collection centre on Sunday where daily collection would happen under the supervision of representatives of families in the village.

While rotting garbage would be handed over to the municipality after collection, solid waste would be segregated and disposed off in a scientific manner.

Used newspapers, empty bottles and other solid waste with commercial value would be sold to get funds for the activities. An organic vegetable farm and a processing centre for garbage would soon function close to the collection centre and they would solve its dependency upon the municipality to dispose of rotting garbage. Bio-manures to be made at the treating plant would be used to promote agricultural activities in the village.

“The collection centre is a realization of a long pending dream of ours. Last five years, we collected solid waste once a week from households. Keeping solid waste at home for a week started causing difficulty to the people here. So we thought of the daily collection centre apart from a processing unit and organic vegetable cultivation. Two vacant plots extending over 54 cents in the village were used to initiate the project with the consent of owners of respective lands,’’ said K. C. Radhakrishnan, a senior police officer, who initiated the move.

There would be separate collection facilities for plastic, paper and metal in the collection centre Mr Radhakrishnan said the move was part of a self-reliant village initiative that would grow its own required vegetables apart from ensuring cent percent waste management without involvement of governmental agencies. About Rs. 2 lakh was mobilized from the residents to build the collection centre.