As the nation celebrated Gandhi Jayanthi, the Chennai Corporation launched a campaign for better management of garbage, which includes segregation of waste before it is handed over to conservancy workers.
In all the 15 zones, conservancy employees were sent to residential neighbourhoods to educate residents about the best way to dispose of garbage. All the 200 wards were covered by this initiative.
“Corporation workers asked residents to separate biodegradable waste from non-biodegradable waste before handing them both over to the conservancy workers arriving in tricycles,” said an official.
The Corporation will continue the campaign for a week. The effort is aimed at reducing the dumping of municipal solid waste in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur dumping grounds, which currently receive around 5,000 tonnes of waste.
“The officials visited the neighbourhoods. But conservancy workers have not started collecting segregated waste in tricycles,” said P. V. Tamil Selvan, a councillor in the Ambattur zone.
The Corporation has taken several initiatives to create awareness about source segregation of waste.
However, many households continue to dump garbage in bins without segregating it. The new initiative is likely to be supported by decentralised waste processing facilities in each neighbourhood.
The Corporation’s bio-methanation plants in areas such as Pulianthope, Athipet and Velangadu with technology from the Baba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, is expected to improve decentralised waste processing. Each of the plants process two tonnes of waste per day.
Conservancy employees educated residents about the best way to dispose of garbage
