Unsegregated waste could choke city

Unsegregated waste is a problem that the Madurai Corporation has failed to address effectively, even after issuing repeated orders. Many feel that the time has come for the district collector to take up the issue in his capacity as the district magistrate, as piled up garbage could choke the city and create a Chennai-like situation in the event of heavy rain.
About 900 tonnes of garbage are generated in the city everyday, but just around 75% of this is cleared. The remaining, which is mainly wet waste, settles at the bottom and forms a layer of 'night soil' that never gets removed. This is the garbage generated by residents who discharge it through proper channels. Many more continue to dump waste on vacant plots, to skip having to pay the sanitary worker.
S V Pathy, founder of Centre for Environmental Services, an organization that deals with collection and segregation of plastic from garbage, said the quantity of wet waste had gone down these days. These kinds of waste, generated in kitchens, have come down to just 150g per day, as people have begun to order food from outside more often. This generates higher amount of waste, in terms of plastics and paper. Only 40% of the garbage generated in the city is bio-waste, and the rest is plastic, when you calculate by volume and not by weight, he said.
He also said that workers have been noting that large-size diapers were being added to the daily garbage in many homes in some parts of Madurai. "When we examined further, we found that healthy adult males, who are bachelors or staying alone, have resorted to using them because they do not need washing and maintenance," he said. These diapers comprise 10 to 12% of the garbage in some places, which were clearly not being used by elders. This is a detrimental attitude as far as the environment is concerned, Pathy said.
During the budget presentation this year, city engineer A Madhuram had announced that Rs1.55 crore was being allotted for using plastic wastes to lay roads on a distance of 3km in the city, but this is yet to be realized.
Pathy pointed out that garbage was something that had to be dealt with on a war-footing in the city, by setting up recyclable waste banks in the streets and appointing a guard to ensure its collection.
"We do not have to depend on the city authorities for this. The district collector can intervene in this issue in his capacity as district magistrate and make the civic associations comply with a diktat to this effect. When the collector can use his good office to see that garbage segregation is done in panchayats, why can't he ensure it throughout the entire district?" he asked.
Pathy added that he was ready to offer his 25 years of experience in garbage collection and segregation free of cost to the district administration.