Act tough to ensure waste segregation: Experts

Civic Body Continues To Collect Mixed Garbage Action Sought Against Those Who Don't Separate Dry, Wet WasteThe garbage crisis may have been tackled for now, but the much larger issues confronting solid waste management in the city are yet to be dealt with, say experts. For 14 years, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been creating awareness about waste segregation when it should be penalizing the offenders.A Supreme Court order had framed rules for handling urban refuse which made it mandatory for people to practice segregation and ensure that all wet waste was put inside vermicompost pits and only dry waste is collected by civic bodies. For all these years the PMC has only been generating awareness about the issue, isnt it time for them to take some action, said Sheela Krishnan, who has helped several housing societies in the city set up vermicompost pits.It is not as if people do not know that they should do. It is just that there is no punitive action taken against those who do not segregate waste, she said.Citing the example of a housing society in her immediate neighbourhood, Krishnan said that whenever she broached the subject she was told that the residents did not want to go through the hassle, especially when the PMC continues to collect mixed garbage.There are all these misconceptions about waste-segregation. People claim it is expensive or that the compost pits smell, but this is not so, Krishnan said.Members of housing societies that have implemented a waste segregation and vermicomposting system echo her views. We started vermi-composting our wet waste three years ago. Our housing society of 130 flats generates about 70-80 kg garbage a day. To process the waste it takes about a week so we have seven bins one for every day of the week and a spare one to keep the dry leaves that are also required, said Anil Hoshangabade, chairman of the Lunkad ColonadeII housing society.He explained that at the time of digging the pits, precautions had been taken to add a layer of bricks and broken glass at the bottom which ensures that rats stay away. The pits usually fill up in about four or five monthswhen eventually they are able to collect about 400 kg of manure.It cost us about Rs 1 lakh at the time of installation, but all residents of the housing society have received a 5% rebate on their property tax ever since, he added.Not all vermi-composting projects have to be on a large scale.In our area we have been able to convince most of the residents to do home-composting and people have found all kinds of ways of doing it. Some are doing it in bags, baskets, pots, buckets. Sure, it requires a little bit of attention, but it is not back-breaking work, said Sumita Kale, a member of the Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti.Kale recalled an occasion when she was conducting a workshop on the issue of waste segregation and had taken a bag of vermi-compost along to demonstrate.We had spoken for a full hour with the bag right next to the audience and no one realized what was in it. It was only when we opened it to show them that there was a months-worth of rotting garbage inside that they came to know what it was, Kale added.