Tiruchi Corporation distributes bags to improve waste segregation at source

Tiruchi Corporation promotes waste segregation at source with polythene bags, aiming to recycle non-biodegradable waste citywide.

Tiruchi Corporation has stepped up measures to improve waste segregation at source in residential and commercial buildings in the city.

In an attempt to encourage the public to segregate waste at source, high-quality polythene bags have been distributed to households and commercial establishments to collect non-biodegradable waste. Residents are asked to keep dry waste such as used plastic bottles, glasses, metals, paper, and other items in the bag and hand it over to garbage collectors during daily door-to-door collection rather than openly dumping them.

The initiative has been implemented in wards 7, 26, 33, 46 and 63 as a pilot project, and soon it will be extended to all 65 wards in the city. It aims to segregate and collect non-biodegradable waste at the source and send it for recycling. 

The Corporation has outsourced the collection, segregation, transportation, and processing of waste generated in all 65 wards in the city to a private agency. On average, the city generates about 480 tonnes of waste per day.

At present, single-use plastics are being sent to cement factories to be used as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). These plastics are being segregated by the conservancy workers every day from the garbage collected from households.

Conservancy workers were instructed to check the collected garbage to ensure it was segregated. “The quality of source segregation has been gradually improving, and with this initiative, we expect to bring about a behavioural change in the residents,” said a senior Corporation official.

Schoolchildren are roped in to carry out door-to-door campaigns to raise awareness of segregating waste as biodegradable and non-biodegradable before handing it over to sanitary workers at the doorstep. Awareness programmes emphasising wealth generation from recyclable waste would be conducted in public spots as well.