The Hindu      26.08.2016 

Waste collection from apartments, gated communities picks up

‘No Dumping’ members collecting waste in a segregated manner from an apartment at Sowripalayam in Coimbatore.—Photo: M. Periasamy

On Independence Day, the Coimbatore Corporation recognised the efforts of many a civil society organisations, including that of ‘No Dumping’ team.

The team, since January this year, has collected waste in a segregated fashion from gated communities and apartments, two wards, the Coimbatore airport and another places – 22, in all – and processed the waste.

Handing out the award, Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan said that team’s effort was commendable and that the civic body planned to expand the waste collection to 50 wards in the city.

C. Prasanth of the ‘No Dumping’ team says that in the past seven months, the team has collected 15,275 kg organic wet waste, 2,64,607 kg inorganic dry waste and 9,598 kg unhygienic waste like sanitary napkins.

The team sends the organic waste to bio-gasifier plants, farmers and the Corporation’s vermin compost plant and segregated and sold recyclable dry waste to vendors. It sells the non-recyclable dry waste to ACC Cement company as alternative fuel resource and sent the unhygienic waste to safe landfill in Vellalore.

He says that the team makes “some money” by selling the recyclable dry waste but the money is not enough to sustain the operations. It gets support from the ACC Cement company that support it as part of its corporate social responsibility operations.

In the apartments, though, the team collects segregated waste at their doorstep. Before starting the operation, the team talked to apartment associations, brought them on board and then created awareness among women, the maids and also housekeeping staff.

Resident B. Sabari Sabthami of Lambodara Orchid Elegance apartments on Kannabiran Mill Road says that the association has given two bins and a bag to all the residents, who segregate the waste into organic wet, inorganic dry and unhygienic waste. Initially, there were hiccups but now almost all residents are following the practices, she adds.

Now the team has reached out to colleges as well. On Wednesday, it kick-started the drive at the CMS College of Science and Commerce.

The Hindu       21.07.2016 

Garbage poses health hazard to residents

Irregular clearance of garbage in various parts of the district has been posing a serious health hazard for the past few months resulting in foul smell. The garbage is not being cleared daily and regularly but only on a weekly basis at several places, say the residents.

While Karaikal is a municipal town, the other major local bodies – Neravy, Nedungadu, Kottucherry, Tirunallar and T.R. Pattinam — are commune panchayats in the district.

Given the strong seasonal winds, the garbage is found strewn all around the residential areas in the town as well as Kottucherry and Nedungadu.

The worst-hit is the Nedungadu Commune Panchyat where the panchayat workers, including the conservancy workers, desist from clearing the garbage. The workers claimed non-disbursement of salary for the past few months had forced them to resort to relay strike.

Jaisingh, president of the Government Employees Federation, said that the workers were left with no option but to resort to the strike.

He said that paucity of funds stood in the way for disbursing the salary to the employees.

There has been an increase in the volume of garbage, particularly waste food, meat, parotta and plastic waste, says N. Gandhirajan, Municipal Commissioner, Karaikal.

He told The Hindu that the municipality handled 50 tonnes of solid waste daily, which was just 35 tonnes a couple of years ago.

“The increase in the number of residential colonies in the town has contributed to the rise in the volume of garbage,” he added.

Facing the difficulty in segregating the degradable and non-degradable waste materials, the municipality has planned to introduce door-to-door collection of bio-degradable and non-degradable waste in a couple of months, he added.

Polythene waste was a major problem in the town, partly due to the presence of a large number of bars.