In just a few months, Tirunelveli municipality in Tamil Nadu has achieved the feat of 100 per cent segregation of waste at source across households and institutions. It required securing effort from each family to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.
Several campaigns though TV and local radio channels was done pointing towards housewives and roping in religious leaders and NGOs to achieve the goal. The Tirunelveli model can be effortlessly adopted by other metropolises.
Tirunelveli, which has nearly 1.6 lakh families, took up this task in April 2016. However, a rigorous campaign started only on October 2, taking hint from the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The rule makes it obligatory for all waste producers to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste before disposal. They also required handing over the segregated waste to authorized waste pickers-waste collectors.
Pleased at Tirunelveli’s attainment of becoming the first Indian city to achieve this goal, segregation of waste at source, municipal commissioner S Sivasubramanian told TOI, “Our sanitation workers went to each house, collected an undertaking from each of them saying that they will segregate waste at home. We distributed two waste bins to every household.I wrote personal letters to each house to make this a success and we made public announcements using loudspeakers across the city for two months.”
“We collected Rs 10 per household as service charge for this. Now, everyone is obeying with the change. What we realized is that people will do their bit if we in the management take essential steps,” the commissioner said.
