Garden waste collection to be extended to all zones in Tiruchi

The drive to remove garden waste from streets and vacant sites, launched by Tiruchi Corporation in April to check garbage dumping on public spots, has been received well by residents, according to officials.

The drive to remove garden waste from streets and vacant sites, launched by Tiruchi Corporation in April to check garbage dumping on public spots, has been received well by residents, according to officials.

The reception for the drive, implemented in Zone V- K Abishekapuram on a pilot basis, has been positive and helped bring down waste piling on the roadsides in the streets. Officials say the civic body has planned to extend the method to all parts of the city.

While domestic and commercial solid waste was being collected by workers at the doorstep, there was no system to collect garden waste from houses and gated communities. Pruned branches and plants dumped on public spots remain neglected for a long time.

Workers and machinery are deployed to remove garden waste comprising uprooted plants, leaves and trimmed tree branches from vulnerable points at midnight. Around four tipper lorries, one backhoe loader and mini garbage collection trucks are engaged in 13 wards in the zone during the night till 3 a.m.

“The drive is carried out thrice a week to ensure that the waste doesn’t end up on streets again. So far, around 75 metric tonne of garden waste has been collected from the zone,” said a senior Corporation official.

According to the officials, the collected waste would either be sent to a micro compost centre or the dump yard in Ariyamangalam. “While large trunks of trees were sent to the dump yard, leaves and small branches will be sent to compost centres, where the garden waste will be shredded and mixed with wet waste to produce compost manure,” the official said.

Residents welcomed the move and exhorted the civic body to regularise the process. “In addition to removing the waste from public spots, a garbage collection vehicle should be engaged to collect garden waste from households directly,” said S. Kumaravel, a resident of Anna Nagar.