Having launched an ambitious plan on source segregation of solid
waste across the city from June 5, Tiruchi Corporation is planning to
strengthen its system of door-to-door collection of non-degradable solid
wastes in the coming days.

The Corporation has also started
reaching out to school and college students to drive home the importance
of source segregation of waste to residents.

Under the system,
city residents are required to segregate their bio-degradable and
non-degradable waste and hand over the same to the sanitary workers. All
2.3 lakh households in the city, besides shops and commercial
establishments, are required to comply with the new regulation. About
1,200 sanitary workers, monitored by senior officers, are engaged in
collecting the non-degradable wastes exclusively on Wednesdays.

The
city generated about 450 tonnes of solid waste every day and civic body
aims at substantially reduce the quantum of non-degradable waste dumped
at the Ariyamangalam garbage yard through the initiative. Residents are
told to segregate the waste and collect them in separate blue and green
coloured bins.

Civic officials say that there has been a gradual
increase in the quantum of non-degradable waste collected on Wednesdays
since the launch of the programme earlier this month. On the first day
of the initiative, about 12.79 tonnes of non degradable wastes were
collected. The quantum went up to 46.16 tonnes on June 15 and touched
nearly 60 tonnes on Wednesday, Special Officer-cum-Corporation
Commissioner N.Ravichandran told
The Hindu
.

The Corporation has identified about 200 vendors who would buy
the non-degradable waste collected from residents for processing or
recycling. The money generated from this is shared among the sanitary
workers as an incentive. On Wednesday, about Rs. 1.70 lakh was
distributed among the workers and the previous week the sum was around
Rs. 1.25 lakhs.

“There is a
gradual improvement as the message is reaching more number of residents
in the city. Wherever we go to sensitise people, there is a good
response from residents,” Mr. Ravichandran said.

However, the
entire city could not be fully covered yet. With most sanitary workers
collecting the solid wastes in push carts, the process takes
considerable time. The Corporation has deployed about 27 mini
autorickshaws too and these vehicles are able to cover about 2000
households a day.

“We plan to strengthen the collection system by
acquiring another 40 such vehicles. Two of the new vehicles have already
come and rest will hit the roads soon. This will help cover more
households,” he felt.

“We hope to achieve cent per cent
door-to-door collection soon and if we achieve this it will
substantially bring down dumping of solid wastes in public places,” Mr.
Ravichandran said.

The civic body was also conducting mass
cleaning drives to clean solid wastes in public places, including vacant
plots, in different localities. “Once we clean a particular locality,
we tell the public to stop dumping wastes in public places.”

Simultaneously,
the Corporation has launched an awareness campaign in schools and
colleges to spread the message to residents through students. “We are
planning to cover all schools and colleges in about a month’s time,” he
added.