CHENNAI: People readily join the ‘close landfills’ chorus which begins every time the Kodungaiyur or Perungudi landfill catches fire and nearby residential areas cough their lungs dry. But Chennai generates more than 5000 tonnes of domestic waste every day. Where will all the waste go?
People love complaining about the ever-growing, towering landfills but don’t do anything to stop the mess from growing bigger.
Almost three weeks in, the waste segregation campaign launched by Chennai Corporation to bring down solid waste has failed to gain traction. Thirty-five-year-old Raja*, a conservancy worker from Zone 10 thought his work would become easier after the corporation launched it on October 2. However, he is yet to sift through remains of last night’s sambar rice (a biodegradable waste) to retrieve an empty packet of potato chips (non-biodegradable).
“Very few people have started segregating waste. Most leave the unsegregated waste outside and aren’t available so we can’t even tell them to start segregating waste,” Raja tells Express. Even when segregation is done, it isn’t done carefully. Lakshmi R, a resident of Guindy, has been taking down only the kitchen dustbin when bio-degradable waste is being collected. However, she admits that empty oil, masala and noodles packets also go into the dustbin. “I think about disposing of them separately, but it’s inconvenient,” she says.
It is very clear the two dustbin system hasn’t debuted in the majority of the households in the city and the most recent initiative taken by the corporation might fizzle out. Zonal officers have also been observing a lack of enthusiasm. “We have given residents a three-month grace period. After that, we will stop taking waste from households which don’t comply,” said a senior official from Solid Waste Management (SWM) department.
Signs of hope
Joseph Jagan’s kuppathotti.com, a doorstep service which collects recyclables, has managed to attract around 40,000 households who regularly segregate their waste. “Going to the local scrap shops is an inconvenience for this time-crunched society. So that is where we come in,” he says. The families which subscribe to kuppathotti.com have a two dustbin system which helps them easily send the non-biodegradable waste to be recycled.
These 40,000 families might seem like a drop in the ocean of the city which has a population of 7.1 million but it shows that the system is sustainable. Kurien Joseph, a professor at the Centre For Environmental Studies, Anna University, deems the two-dustbin system essential. “Around 80 per cent of the waste generated can be either composted or recycled,” he says. “With public cooperation, waste which reaches landfills every day can be brought down to around 1000 tonnes.”
In Manali, where waste segregation was first introduced as a pilot project, the number of public dustbins came down from 267 to 68. This clearly shows the amount of waste generated will comprehensively come down.
Giant dump yards
The Kodungaiyur and Perungudi landfills have been in existence for almost three decades. With a combined total area of more than 400 acres, these landfills are also more than 20 feet tall.
A senior official from the SWM department says that incinerators are imminent and that waste would have to be burned to reclaim the land. “We have been planning to reduce the area occupied by the two landfills and a sacrifice has to be made,” he said.
The two landfills have both been known to generate leachate, which pollutes the groundwater of nearby areas. The Corporation also plans to launch waste to energy plants in both landfills. “The energy generation might not be great but something is better than nothing,” said the senior official.
Need for penalty
The Corporation says the domestic waste of those who don’t comply after the grace period will not be collected. However, activists believe people shouldn’t be let off so easily. MB Nirmal, the founder of EXNORA, an organization that began talking about waste segregation almost three decades ago, believes in spreading awareness through local welfare bodies. “However a penalty should be levied on defaulters,” he says. “‘Segregating waste just makes the job of the conservancy worker easier’ — is a common misconception which stops people from taking the initiative.”
However, in addition to saving Raja the trouble of sifting through last night’s sambar rice, it can also stop the mounds at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur from growing bigger.