Judges, experts brainstorm on waste management solution

Justice P Jyothimani, NGT, Southern Zone, Chennai said that the conference aimed to standardise the environmental laws.
Houses abutting the 40-acre Ariyamangalam dumpyard, where 436 tonnes of solid wastes are dumped every day, in Tiruchy | M K Ashok Kumar
Houses abutting the 40-acre Ariyamangalam dumpyard, where 436 tonnes of solid wastes are dumped every day, in Tiruchy | M K Ashok Kumar

CHENNAI: In the first of its kind, some top judges in the country came together with some of the top environmental experts and government officials to discuss, engage and find solutions to the country’s environmental and waste management problems at a regional conference organised by the National Green Tribunal on Saturday. Kiran Bedi, Lt. Governor of Puducherry, was one of the guests at the two-day conference being organised also by the United Nations Environment Programme, TN Dr Ambedkar University and Southern State Pollution Control Boards.

Justice P Jyothimani, NGT, Southern Zone, Chennai said that the conference aimed to standardise the environmental laws streamlining the executive and regulatory bodies with regional-level perspectives in mind and sustainable development as a goal.

Supreme Court judges N V Ramana and Justice R Banumathi urged activists and experts to approach the courts for justice as it was essential to address the need for accountability of the executive in such matters.
The discussions panned from solid and biomedical waste management to industrial pollution management and protection of biodiversity.

One of the presentations that stood out at the conference was made by Vellore C Srinivasan, founder of Indian Green Service, who said that before we worried about how to dispose of waste, there was a chance to stop waste from even becoming ‘waste’. “If garbage is collected within the first six hours, it isn’t even waste yet. It can easily be used for other purposes like food or compost,” he said. Srinivasan went on to explain that kept for the next 12 hours, the unwanted materials remain fresh raw material and they become waste after 24 hours.

“If instead of once, we have garbage collection twice a day, that is enough to bring down our garbage by more than half!”

While claiming to try not to sound negative, Atulya Misra, Chairman, TNPCB, said that Chennai had a mammoth problem, “ We produce 5000 tonnes of garbage per day in the city.” He went on to list all the various jobs that the TNPCB undertakes every day to give an audience an insight into its tasks and the difficulty of the job.

However, Bedi swiftly took the microphone and suggested that a major part of the problem lay in lack of field work. “ More than sitting in the offices and demanding reports from field workers, it is essential for public servants to be on the streets and ensure work is getting done. A huge part of the problem would be solved if all our public servants were out on the streets from six in the morning. If you do your job, then others will follow you. So get on the streets and start work early” she advised.

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