BANGALORE: From Thursday, residents of Sanjay Nagar in the city will take up an initiative to ensure zero-waste generation from their houses. The initiative is aimed at reducing the amount of waste being sent to Mandur landfill.
It seems that the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan,’ initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has finally caught up among residents of the city.
A resident of Sanjay Nagar in the city has hit upon a novel and simple idea to stop generating kitchen waste.
Venugopal Iyengar, an Aam Aadmi Party member running a food products factory, believes that if kitchen waste, which forms the major part of household refuse, is eliminated, then the garbage problem in Bangalore can be reduced to a large extent.
“Residents of Mandur are human beings too. It is appalling that so much of garbage is dumped there, which raises a stink, apart from being a source of diseases,” he said.
“Keeping this in mind, I hit upon the idea of segregating kitchen waste, which if reduced, can have a huge impact on the amount of waste that is sent to Mandur.” Iyengar estimates that around 70 per cent of the garbage sent to Mandur comprises kitchen waste.
According to Iyengar’s idea, kitchen waste, mostly comprising vegetable skins and seeds, should be segregated and kept separately. These can be added to some water, ground in a grinder, and disposed of in toilets or used as manure in the garden.
It can also be disposed of in a small pit and covered with soil to prevent stink.
He said dry waste such as paper and plastic can be kept separately, and handed over to the person who collects such waste for recycling. Hence, there is zero waste. “We (Iyengar and other AAP volunteers) have spoken to several residents about this initiative, and have received a fantastic response,” said Iyengar.
Currently, the BBMP, which collects garbage from residences in the city, mixes kitchen waste, paper and plastic together, and sends it to be dumped at Mandur. Apart from segregating kitchen waste, the group of volunteers have also started to clean up ‘black spots,’ which are open areas and sites traditionally used as dumping grounds by the city’s residents.
Iyengar told Express that he has advised those living in the vicinity of these black spots to stop throwing waste there.
“We have already sanitised two black spots in Sanjay Nagar with the help of the BBMP,” he added.
Iyengar has also approached three schools in Sanjay Nagar to spread awareness on effective waste management.
“We want students, especially those in high school, to adopt a particular road and ensure that it is garbage-free. They are starting off from Thursday,” he said, adding that his next initiative is to advise shop-keepers in the vicinity to stop using plastic covers.