The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Police composting project is a success

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 28, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Police composting project is a success

Swahilya

400 kilos have already been sold

WEALTH FROM WASTE: The compost pit at the Armed Reserve Police Line at Pudupet. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI : They escort prisoners to the courts and even provide security for the VIPs, including the Chief Minister.

But, when they are not on high-security duties, they are soiling their hands with garbage and composting it into organic manure.

Meet the residents of the 668 houses of the Armed Reserve Police Line in Pudupet, where a project for segregating and composting bio-degradable wastes was launched in November 2005. Their combined effort, with several departments and NGOs, has yielded around 60 kg of compost per month.

So far, around 400 kg of a total 600 kg have been sold at Rs. 5 per kg.

The seal on the neatly packaged organic manure mentions that it is a project of the Chennai Metropolitan Police inaugurated by the City Police, Chennai Corporation under the Police Quarters Welfare Project.

Initiated by Assistant Commissioner of Police A. Manivasagam, the project begins at home, where residents segregate their wet and dry wastes. The three sanitary workers in the Police department are on the rounds from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. collecting the segregated wastes.

While paper, plastics and other waste are cleared by Corporation trucks, the wet wastes are sent to one of the five compost pits constructed by the Chennai Corporation.

S. Johnson, a police constable says that with just around two kilos of wet waste collected every day, the cement pit is filled and closed with a plastic sheet for 60 days.

In between, the waste is stirred with wet cowdung.

After 60 days, the compost is taken out, dried in the sun, beaten down and passed through a sieve. The fine compost is packed in bags and ready for sale.

"This space where the compost yard is located was once a junk yard with lots of wild growth. With the composting activity, the whole area has become clean," Mr. Johnson said.

The only hitch in providing good quality red and green dustbins to the houses to segregate the two types of garbage was that many women began to use it to store condiments at home.

Awareness is being created through meetings on the need for segregating the wastes. According to Mythili Sriram, who co-ordinates the welfare project, the success of the Pudupet line composting has led it to be introduced in Kotturpuram, Kondithope and Triplicane.

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