IDUKKI: The sleepy tea plantations of Munnar make the case for the segregation of waste at source. And, this assumes greater importance at a time when the massive fire at the Brahmapuram dump yard, in Kochi, has kicked up a statewide debate on the way forward on waste management, especially in urban centres.
The labour quarters, where plantations workers live with their families, have for long been showing the way forward, even before state and central projects, such as the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Haritha Keralam Mission, were launched. This becomes evident to visitors to the tea estates, where colour-coded gunny bags — in blue, green, yellow and red — can be seen hanging in front of each line of houses that residents use to separate the trash. The waste is then handed over to panchayat authorities for processing at a facility in Kallar.
The residents have been practising this system for nearly a decade and their efforts have had the wholehearted support of Kanan Devan Hill Plantations Ltd (KDHP), which owns the tea estates in Munnar. A KDHP spokesperson told TNIE the system of segregating waste at source has been practised successfully in all 92 divisions of Munnar’s tea estates for the past 10 years.
“The gunny bags with colour codes hung in front of the workers’ quarters, are being used to collect plastic, metal, glass and bio waste separately from households. While the biowaste is turned into compost and distributed to workers for use in farmlands, plastic and other waste are handed over to panchayat authorities for recycling,” he said.
‘Segregated waste makes recycling more effective’
“At a time when the state is seriously discussing appropriate waste management systems for cities, the credit here goes to the estate workers for being conscious about cleanliness, in spite of being settled in the remote outskirts of Munnar town,” Munnar panchayat secretary K N Sahajan said. The segregated waste received from the estates helps make the panchayat’s recycling efforts more effective, he added.
The local body adopted waste segregation at source three years ago and today it has achieved more than 95% efficiency. Moreover, it is one of the only towns in the district to generate revenue out of waste. “The panchayat has sold organic fertilisers worth Rs 1 lakh, made from the nearly 2,000kg of biowaste collected from the town on a daily basis.
We also have Rs 10 lakh in fertilisers in stock,” Sahajan said. The panchayat has 20 Haritha Karma Sena workers, apart from 60 employees, to coordinate the waste management work of the town. In terms of user fees alone, the panchayat earns Rs 3 lakh on a monthly basis. While households are charged Rs 50 for daily collection of segregated waste, shops and large hotels cough up between Rs 1,000 and Rs 4,000.