Tiruchi Corporation holds awareness programme on source segregation of waste

The Tiruchi Corporation has launched a door-to-door campaign to raise awareness and engage residents in the segregation of household waste at the source

The Tiruchi Corporation has launched a door-to-door campaign to raise awareness and engage residents in the segregation of household waste at the source.

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 an average, the city generates about 470 tonnes of waste daily and around 75% of it was claimed to be segregated at source.

In an attempt to improve source segregation, the officials have begun conducting door-to-door awareness programmes to sensitise residents in all five zones. A robotic vehicle is being engaged to emphasise the importance of solid waste management practices among the public.

Residents were asked to segregate waste as biodegradable and non-biodegradable before handing it over to sanitation workers at the doorstep. Old notebooks, clothes, plastics, and unused iron items should be handed over separately.

Conservancy workers were instructed to check the collected garbage to ensure it was segregated. They claimed that the apartments had better waste segregation quality, compared to the residences of marginal sector and commercial areas.

The collected non-biodegradable dry waste was transported to the Ariyamangalam dump yard and was processed in a phased manner. The segregated wet waste is transported to the micro composting centres run by the Corporation in various places, where conservancy workers again segregate the waste to process and produce compost.

In 2023, the civic body provided two bins to every house in Zone IV to dump biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste separately under the ‘My Waste My Responsibility’ initiative. Around 500 bins were distributed to families to encourage residents to segregate waste at the source. The civic body is considering providing two bins to all households in every ward with the support of welfare associations.