What others do with domestic waste

While a “corporate approach” has worked well for the apartment complex, enthusing students to participate has helped D G Vaishnav College to manage its waste for the past 18 months. What started as a simple compost pit in a vacant land behind the college has now evolved into Rs.4.5-lakh vermicompost shed which not only generates manure for vegetables from the college for its canteen but also gets small returns for the conservancy staff. “When the NSS volunteers were trained to conduct an audit and they were enthused to take up the project,” says M.Veliappan, Programme Officer, Exnora International, T. Nagar.
The project began with collecting canteen waste and teaching the students to drop waste in dustbins. The college conservancy staff segregates the waste. When the college built a shed for vermicomposting, Mr. Veliappan's effort paid off. “The college has developed a garden and a banana grove. We get around 100 to 150 kg of biodegradable waste and the compost is used for trees in the campus,” he says. Paper, plastic, laboratory waste, bottles and packing material from the college are segregated and disposed of by the conservancy staff, who share the proceeds among themselves.
The Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, is also building compost sheds, Mr. Veliappan says.

Source : The Hindu