CHENNAI: As the first step towards a zero-waste Chennai, Greater Chennai Corporation along with Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG), has chosen to adopt a ‘don’t mix your waste’ strategy rather than insisting that residents segregate their waste.
On Sunday, volunteers gathered at Anna Tower Park at Anna Nagar, Anna Park at Royapuram and Kasturba Nagar community hall at Adyar and undertook a door-to-door campaign to hand residents a segregation guide and to have them sign a pledge to comply with the Solid Waste Management and Handling Rules 2016.
“It is enough if we ask residents to not mix their waste. It sounds less demanding than asking them to segregate it,” said a corporation staff from zone 13 at Kasturba Nagar community hall.
The CAG, last month, signed a memorandum of understanding with the civic body as the knowledge partner to implement the zero-waste policy.
Local residents were paired with malaria workers and were guided by ‘animators’ from the city corporation ahead of their door-to-door visits. Satyarupa Shekhar, Director (Urban Governance), CAG said, “The aim is to have cent per cent of organic waste composted by June 2020. The corporation is already a few steps ahead- with 66 Resource
Recovery Centres (RRC) for dry waste and 169 compost yards. The public should catch up.”
“The corporation is looking to implement the ‘No segregation, no collection’ plan very soon,” she added.
There was a palpable apprehension among residents who gathered for the campaign as to whether the unsegregated waste would get mixed with waste already segregated at the household level when it reaches the collection points.
In areas like Adyar, where residents welfare organisations like the recently formed Residents of Kasturba Nagar Association (ROKA) are active, segregation is already being carried out at the domestic level.
“The campaign went well and there was an overwhelming response from citizens already segregating and composting. They had been waiting for the Corporation to take it up and are now delighted that it finally has been,” said Prashanth Goutham of Perungudi, who volunteered for the campaign at Adyar. The campaign would be soon scaled up to other parts of the city.