RWAs joint hands with MCC for segregation of waste and home composting
MCC holds “Aapke Saath” awareness meetings with city RWAs at 5 different locations
Chandigarh, June 11:- To increase citizen participation in segregation of waste at source level and home composting, Municipal Corporation Chandigarh organized meetings today at different sectors to commemorate Environment Week from 5th-11th June under the theme “Aapke Saath”.
During which representatives of Resident Welfare Associations shared their practices on segregation and home composting. The citizens appreciated the efforts of Corporation by mentioning that officials are interacting, available and dealing their problems and issues, a change and transformation is being noticed for last couple of months.
While addressing the representatives of different RWAs at community centre, sector 8, here today Smt. Sarbjit Kaur, Mayor, Chandigarh said that the residents, who are composting their wet or kitchen waste at their houses should lead by example and show small, incremental sprints towards successful composting to generate interest and participation gradually.
She said that laws of collective behavior suggest that if someone sees their neighbours doing something together, they are compelled to join in to be socially included. Once enough momentum is gathered, the RWAs can invest in larger community composting systems. For RWAs that need to compost on-site, composting solutions can be made available by the civic body, added the Mayor.
Ms. Anindita Mitra, IAS, Commissioner, MCC addressed similar programme of RWAs at community centre, sector 22 during which she said that from segregation to recycling to making compost, residents should handle the waste responsibly and ensure that it does not end up in mixed form at Dadumajra landfill.
She said that the RWAs should hold virtual or physical demonstrations for the city residents, domestic help and housekeeping staff to understand and practice segregation and create awareness about the categories of household waste so that every home knows what items fall under dry, wet, sanitary and hazardous waste.
She said that waste passes through multiple hands before final disposal. If domestic dry and wet waste is not separated, the compost plant run by the Municipal Corporation does not process it and if sanitary and hazardous waste i.e. diapers, sanitary napkins, glass shards, chemicals etc. are not segregated it ends up causing illness and injuries to waste collectors.
She lauded the efforts of office bearers of RWAs with nearly 100 odd houses & flats in sector 22-A, which generates around 200 Kgs of solid waste, including 150 Kgs only kitchen waste, every day. But unlike many other sectors or societies, the residents of these houses make sure that all of their waste is recycled and does not gone to the waste collector.
It all began one year ago when Smt. Puja Ghai and Sh. Hem Raj Satija had practiced waste segregation at their houses for over a couple of months by segregating dry waste separately and making compost from the kitchen and horticulture waste and they decided to turn this into a campaign, involving all nearby residents of their sector.
Today during the awareness meeting organized by the MCC at Sector 22, both Smt. Pooja Ghai and Sh. Hem Raj Satija shared their practices home composting and segregation of waste, which was highly appreciated by all the representatives of other Resident Welfare Associations and ensured to adopt the same to reduce their waste at source level.
Muskan, a resident of Dhanas, guided other residents of the local area regarding the three dimensional benefits of home composting. She said she has been doing home composting for the past few years. Initially, she felt a bit awkward. She also told the residents to start the home composting with level 1, i.e., putting only waste vegetables & fruits in the compost bin. Further, she also requested all the residents to follow the same to make our city clean and green.
Door to Door Waste Collectors at different programmes, requested all the residents to provide the segregated waste in 4 categories, i.e., Dry Waste, Wet Waste, Sanitary Waste and Hazardous Waste. They said that if every household segregate their household waste at source level, this would safeguard them from the skin and other medical diseases and save their time.
During all the programmes at various locations, the officers of MCC, representatives of RWAs took an pledge to abstain from single use plastics usage and segregate waste at source level.
