Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

A green effort from home pays off

Subha J Rao

18 wards of Periyanaickenpalayam segregate waste at source

FROM WASTE TO BLOOM: Karpagam nurturing the plants in her terrace garden with home-made manure. - Photo: K. Ananthan

Coimbatore: For six months now, R. Karpagam, a teacher in Ramnagar, has been segregating the waste generated in her home. At first, it was difficult to train herself to drop vegetable and plant waste into a bucket and non-biodegradable waste into another. Now, it is part of her family's daily routine.

Fruit peels

The vegetable and fruit peels feed the primitive vermicompost pit she maintains at home. Plastic, glass and metal waste are bundled and handed over to conservancy staff.

This `green effort' shows in the lush terrace garden in her home, fed with home-made manure. "I've tried it out so far on flowering plants, herbs such as mint and vegetables. It works beautifully," she says.

Oli Awareness Movement, of which Karpagam is one of catalysts, started a drive two years ago to promote segregation at source on 12 streets of Ramnagar. It soon fizzled out. "We were all so enthusiastic. But, when people realised that conservancy staff were piling up waste together, they lost interest," says Karpagam.

A similar experiment has, however, worked wonders in Periyanaickenpalayam. An initiative of the Pricol Rural Development Programme (PRDP), it is in place at 18 wards of this special panchayat. Arun Kumar, panchayat president, says 75 per cent of the people have switched to segregation at source, most of them willingly. They have appointed 25 self-help group (SHG) members to collect the segregated garbage and hand it over to the PRDP, which converts it into manure.

Mr. Arun admits it was not easy to get the people to sort out waste at home. "But, regular classes, promotion through SHGs and pasting notices in public places helped," he adds.

A ward in the neighbouring Gudalur Panchayat also segregates waste at source, but at a much smaller level.

Lack of awareness

Vanitha Mohan, executive director, Pricol, says lack of awareness compounds the problem. Creating awareness, both among the public and conservancy workers, is the solution, she insists. "Houses take an effort to segregate at source. When that effort is not recognised by workers, the motivation is gone."

Corporation Commissioner Anil Meshram says they are trying to set that right by training conservancy workers. "Also, plans are in place to put up posters in schools, bus stands, to inform people what is degradable and what is not," he adds.

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