COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION :

Collection and Segregation of Waste
Door to door collection of waste is not a common practice in India and is being done through privately hired scavenging staff to some extent. Such services must be utilized individually. Thus, primary collection system by and large is optional. It is essential to search suitable methods by which garbage load on land can be reduced to cope up with the non-availability of land for land-filling in future. Segregation of waste at source level may therefore be insisted upon.

A new scheme to collect the garbage from its source has been introduced by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC). House to house collection of garbage is carried out using handcarts. Scavenging officials of CMC carry handcart during a scheduled time. This practice of collection of garbage was initiated on 1st November, 1994 from Jodhpur Park and at present is in operation in more than 40 wards of the city. A study was taken up for collection and sorting of domestic waste into bio-degradable and non-degradable material by the households of the Purbanchal Housing Estate in Salt Lake City to establish an appropriate system for sorting domestic garbage and recycle them economically. The Nodal Research Centre is collaborating this work with the Paschim Banga Vigyan Manch.

New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) introduced a scheme of door-to-door collection of garbage on experimental basis in some of the colonies. Under this scheme, on 1st May, 1994, NDMC supplied 25 polythene bags of 90' X 25" capacity of about 10-12 kg of garbage at the subsidized price of Rs.15/- per house/month. The garbage is collected on daily basis by the NDMC staff and then deposited in the nearby dustbins for further transporting them to the dumping ground. 40% of the residents were covered under this scheme.

The garbage quality and quantity is also affected with the rise in living standard and modern styles. Use of packaging material and plastic bags, has become a part of day-to-day life. All such bags after usage are indiscriminately thrown here and there and one can see colourful bags flying all around the waste dumps, markets, parks and also can be seen in water bodies and to the extent of choking sewers. It is necessary that allindustries, which produce non-biodegradable materials and where such material after usage is thrown away, may be encouraged to recycle such materials.