DHARMAPURI: Dharmapuri Municipality will provide two waste bins to residents in four out of its 33 wards in the first phase of its ‘Zero Waste wards’ initiative so that the people can segregate waste. The initiative will be implemented in ward 5, 12, 29, and 31.
Over 23 tonnes of waste is generated on a daily basis from the more than 20,000 households which come under the municipality limits. The waste is processed and while dry waste, including plastic is recycled, wet waste is made into compost and sold at Rs 1 per kg.
However, officials from the municipality say waste segregation becomes a huge problem for them as the residents don’t segregate the waste properly, and hence the municipality has taken this new initiative to ensure proper segregation of waste by the residents.
Speaking to TNIE, an employee from the municipality said, “For the past two weeks, we have been conducting door to door surveys and recording the residents’ participation in waste segregation in the four selected wards. This is part of the initiative where colour-coded bins will be distributed to each resident in the wards.”
Municipality Commissioner Chitra Sugumar said, “In the first phase, we have selected four wards in the Municipality to create ‘Zero Waste wards’. In these wards, we would ensure active participation of the people in the waste segregation program. So far, ward 31 in the Municipality is on its way to become a Zero Waste Ward.”
“Councilors will distribute bins with their own funds as well as with the help of some CSR funds. If the first phase becomes successful, this will be implemented in other wards in the municipality,” she further said.
A sanitary employee from the municipality said, “On an average, we spend nearly six to seven hours for segregating waste everyday. We tried to tell the residents to segregate their own wastes so that our job will become easier, but we are met with hostility. We are hoping that this initiative will be successful so that our workload will be reduced.”