Wednesday, 04 August 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
As an initiative to prevent piles of waste from ending up in landfills and dump yards of the city, the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has started promoting and monitoring the compositing process in selected government colonies in the city in association with a non-governmental organisation Waste Warriors. The officials informed that the health section of the corporation has marked 45 government colonies and societies in various wards of Dehradun to initiate this process. Besides this, certain general colonies have been marked for composting too. As stated by municipal sanitation inspector, Pushpa Rauthan, the corporation always encourages segregating garbage at source and adoption of composting to minimise the domestic waste generation but not many locals follow it. “We figured that the easy way to get people to make compost is to make them aware of how garbage segregation and composting can be beneficial. So the corporation, in association with Waste Warriors organised sessions to teach the locals about composting within their premises,” stated Rauthan. Selecting five such colonies, the corporation started the composting process in these colonies about two months ago during the Covid curfew.
She disclosed that composting is currently being done in colonies like Kewal Vihar and Shivalik Enclave besides some societies in the areas of Natthuwala, Rajpur and Jakhan. Rauthan clarified that after the sessions, the residents make compost and the corporation only monitors whether garbage segregation and compositing are being done regularly in these areas. Sanitation workers of MCD do not get involved in the composting process. “When people mix wet biodegradable waste with non-biodegradable waste, it becomes extremely difficult to segregate or recycle them due to various chemical reactions that occur when different substances get mixed with each other. Proper segregation and composting reduces the load on waste processing plants and benefits the environment too,” asserted Rauthan. She said that MCD is also planning to initiate this composting process in other parts of Dehradun too.
