Solid waste management in Kasturba Nagar
As far as solid waste management is concerned, the residents of Kasturba Nagar in Adyar in Chennai set an outstanding example. Since 2018, the welfare association of the city has compiled all waste, including e-waste. From then on, 1.5 tonnes of wet waste generated up to 2019 was sent to micro composting plants. Despite the COVID pandemic, the Kasturba Nagar Association (ROKA) aims to make Adyar a zero-waste district.
Formation of ROKA
Kasturba Nagar’s dedicated volunteers, who were busy with their own work, formed a core group and did a door-to-door campaign ensuring that residents were given their color-coded bins, treating resident meetings on how to segregate, and visiting garbage collectors in order to ensure everyone followed the guidelines and there were no mixing.
Since many of the collectors had to handle hazardous waste it was imperative that gloves and aprons were provided by voluntary efforts. What is quite another matter is that they are difficult for our collectors to use.
After discussing efforts with residents and officials in late 2018, we decided formally forming the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) would help us get more attention from them and more traction from officials. As a result, ROKA (Residents of Kasturba Nagar Association) was formed in December 2018 and formally launched on March 23, 2019. A further chance to encourage residents to follow good SWM practices was provided by the function. The area is comprised of eight roads connected by apartments and houses, according to ROKA’s secretary, Janavi Venkatesh. There are 2500 houses each at three intersections with commercial establishments.
A total of 1500 of them segregate all of their waste. Janhvi Venkatesh explains that the group set up a volunteer system, in which members separate garbage at homes and visit all households as well as train and verify if the tasks are being carried out properly.
Objective
Even with the Covid pandemic, the compost centers receive 850 kilograms of wet waste every single day. A campaign to collect e-waste was launched by the association as early as November 2019 and has been ongoing ever since. Campaign’s objective is to spread awareness about all forms of waste. 750 kilograms of electronic waste were collected, which included old kitchen equipment from CDs, unused computers, batteries, washing machines and tapes.
According to him, the next campaign was supported by people from all across the city. There were approximately 1.3 tonnes of trash collected there. The amount collected in July was 4 tonnes. A large exhibition was also organized to create awareness among children. A photo booth was also set up, and the corporation’s officials were invited to it.
ROKA organizes the event twice a year with Tirupati-based ‘World Scrap Recycling Solution Pvt Ltd’ and Greater Chennai Corporation, in collaboration with Waste Win Recyclers Pvt Ltd. As part of Roka’s campaign, garbage and e-waste as well as mattresses, pillows, and clothes were going to be collected. An organization in Porur orphanages received around ten tonnes of organic waste from this campaign.