Beginning from the red and green boxes

Segregation

Digitization of Garbage

RAIPUR: Amir Khan would have been drawing criticism for expressing his thoughts over intolerance in country but the seed he had sown through his show Satyamev Jayate has started yielding results in Chhattisgarh's Ambikapur district that's all set to become first municipal corporation in country to digitize garbage management, make the city dustbin free and convert 'garbage into gold' by employing poor women.Inspired with the model, Chhattisgarh urban development department has decided to replicate the project across the state giving a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of Clean India Mission.The idea of converting garbage into resource might not be new but succeeding in implementing it is an achievement as 28 wards in Ambikapur city have become totally dustbin free and come January 26, the city goes 100 percent zero waste in all its 48 wards."A city with no dumping yard will be first in Chhattisgarh to come into existence rather, the present space of dumping yard on land of 17 acres would be converted into botanical garden by February 20. Gone are the days of jammed drains filled in filth, there are no community dustbins oozing out smoke on roads either," says Surguja collector Ritu Sain adding that the city will no more suffer from ailments due to unhygienic, insanitary surroundings.C.Srinivasan of India Green Service, Vellore who is the founder of this Solid Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) project was contacted by Ambikapur district administration in 2015 after he presented his ideas on sanitation and full-proof garbage management in Satyamev Jayate, Sain told TOI.On analysing the expenditure municipal corporation was spending towards sanitation was constantly mounting with no satisfaction or results. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 corporation had spent Rs 490, 523, 551 lakhs that was mind-boggling to see no results.Beginning from Ambikapur city, Surguja collector Ritu Sain took lead and lined up municipal corporation, arranged for training, general awareness with participation of citizens, selection of needy women from self-help women groups.The garbage segregation begins from home through red and green boxes given to each house. Red box contains inorganic like paper, cardboard, plastic, electric wires, glass, metal, rubber, bottles, foot-wears and green box contains organic waste like vegetables, garden leaves, meat leftovers, food, coconut, tea and wood. Sanitary pads and diapers are supposed to be covered in paper and kept in red box which would be buried for permanent disposal.Segregation that already begins from home with is brought to SLRM sheds. Recyclable, organic and non-recyclable items are packed separately after segregation and sent to central treasury for tertiary segregation of plastics, metal and electronic items and are then sold as raw materials for recycling to manufacturers, the administration has tied up with.Organic waste like leftovers are fed to cattle, ducks and hens at centres while other remains is used in bio gas digester and composting.Inorganic waste has 17 categories and several sub-categories of paper, plastic, electric goods etc that are sold for recycling to manufacturers at Ambikapur and Raipur.Making best use of technology, the supervisors of each garbage collecting team have been given a tab and blue-tooth printer at SLRM centres who uploads info on quantity of garbage collected separately on solid and liquid form. A receipt is issued by server and is printed on the spot. Statistics about staff, individual user, area, category of waste, daily collection of waste and user charges etc is always available in the server.According to the data being maintained by district data centre total 140.6 tons organic waste and 124.6 tons inorganic waste has been collected till date that has worth nearly Rs 4 lakh.Women of below poor line were trained three rounds with the help of co-operative societies.Each tri-cycle rickshaw used for collection has a team of four women that comprises upto 250 women employees for the present work while the number would expand to 351 once project spreads its wings across all wards from January 26.Each tri-cycle covers 300 families with fees ranging to Rs 50 from houses, Rs 100 from shops, Rs 500 from hotels, Rs 1000 from hostels & ashrams. Adding the waste recently sold in Rs 3 lakh, women earn nearly Rs 8000-9000 with state government holding support till project gets stabilized.Talking to TOI, Luvkush Singraul, commissioner Ambikapur corporation: SLRM was initiated in support with Rs 1 lakh from each corporator of 48 wards. Playing important role they assist women groups in 100% garbage collection from each house and encourage people for participation. The project has given employment to poor women for all 30 days.C. Srinivasan, said,"Mere broom stick and bamboo sticks wont clean India of polluted ponds, heaps of garbage and jammed drains. This project at Ambikapur is coming out very well on parameters of Swachch Bharat mission and while Chhattisgarh is expanding it to other parts of state, it needs to be replicated across nation for real clean India."