Kerala - Kochi

Call to tackle waste at source

KOCHI: People of the city are left with only a few options to clear waste as heaps of garbage once again pile up in various areas.

Shocked by the worsening situation, which can lead to an epidemic, experts have called for emergency measures exclusively for promotion of low-cost, decentralised waste-processing techniques.

Urging the city Corporation and the district administration to punish those dumping waste in public places, V.N. Sivasankara Pillai, former Director of the School of Environmental Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, said the only temporary solution was treating solid waste at source.

“Hotels, commercial establishments and houses will have to devise their own methods to overcome the crisis. Let hotels set up biogas plants. Those unable to do this can go for compost bins,” he said.

Dr. Pillai, who had done research on solid-waste management, suggested that plastic waste, metallic items and bottles be segregated and stored at source till a permanent solution was evolved.

An authorised person could collect such waste from houses, hotels and shops.

The recycled plastic could be converted into containers, which could be handed over to the residents for storage of waste. This could be on a buyback agreement.

Encouraging residents to set up compost bins, Dr. Pillai said several economically viable models of bins and tumblers for composting were available in the market. So were rotating bins.

Quoting study reports, he said the daily average waste generated in a house of two persons would not weigh more than 500 gm.

Two bins could be used in such a house. The waste had to be kept for stabilisation for about two weeks.

Garbage generated during this time could be deposited in the second bin.

In view of the continuing uncertainty over disposal of solid waste, S. Sitaraman, secretary of the Association for Environment Protection, recommended that engineering- college students in the city be made to train the public about waste-disposal methods.

Service of construction workers could be utilised for setting up biogas plants.

The Corporation could provide the funds for initiating urgent measures and recover it later from the public, he said.

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