CHENNAI: While Manali may have been declared a ‘Zero Waste’ zone that does not send any of its waste to landfills, the fact remains that only around 50 per cent of residents segregated waste at the domestic level, according to Greater Chennai Corporation officials.
Segregation of the remaining waste is done by sanitary workers in Manali zone which is one of the least populated zones in the city. With only around 400 sanitary workers segregating for a population of around 1.56 lakhs, achieving similar results in other zones, twice in size and population may be an uphill task for the civic body. “We tried the incentive system, paying `2 for each kilogram of segregated waste and later discontinued it because it did not work. We continue to create awareness but the cooperation is not great,” said a corporation official.
In June last year, over two years after the initiative was started in Manali, only around 20 per cent of residents had been segregating their waste. The number has now increased to around 50 per cent. This leaves conservancy workers shouldering the residents’ responsibilities.
“They tell us that it is our work to segregate because we get paid for it. They have to go to work early and have no time for such things. Beyond a point, we stop asking some people to segregate because it will only result in them shouting at us,” said a conservancy worker in Manali zone.
From 26, the garbage bins in Manali were brought down to zero at the end of May, a move that conservancy workers in the zone said that residents were not prepared for. “In places where dustbins once were, waste continues to pile on the road. This is most often seen in the interior roads and we have to clean it up,” said the conservancy worker.
The Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) began a pilot project for Zero Waste Chennai in ward 100 of the city corporation (Anna Nagar), in May this year. “When they started in May, only two per cent of the ward’s population had been segregating waste. So, the segregated waste often got mixed up with the unsegregated waste that was in bulk,” said a corporation official in the ward.
After intervention, the segregation has increased to 27-29 per cent and the number of bins brought down to 20 from around 80.
However, the same approach by the group failed to work in Royapuram mainly because infrastructure such as micro-composting centres and mulch pits were absent in those areas, said sources.