'Trash-busting' : What's the big deal ?

A reader of TOI article – OMR residents go on trash-busting drives – left a comment, asking “Where does the garbage and trash go? How do you transport it ?”   Philo Stalwin,  a resident of Kelambakkam, provides the answer:  In a mail to  OMR Greens   Stalwin says the garbage that the local panchayat collects from households and streets is dumped in make-shift landfill  by the side of  a lake  behind the Puravankara residential complex that is under construction. The trash heap is set on fire ,  every other night, burning the dump to make space for more garbage.
Trash that is burnt,  unsorted,  may include used tyre,  plastics,  spent battery,  expired medicine , and substances generating toxic fume that spread in the wind in populated neigbourhoods.  Isn’t it time people living in emerging high-rise buildings took congnizance of this smouldering health hazard ?
Skeptics ask  OMR Greens,  ‘what is the big deal in trash-busting  when garbage gets dumped at the same spot the day after it is done’?  Trash-busting is not a waste disposal solution,  but a token initiative by a community group,  to create public awareness  that waste disposal problem  can only get worse, and eventually,  unmanageable,   if we continue to  ignore it.  And   a solution has to be sought with community participation.
OMR Greens is for  a cluster approach to creating infrastructure,  for effective waste and sewage disposal. Government and civic bodies never allocate adequate funds .  Trash-busting is our ways of mobilizing support for setting up area-specific,  locality-wise waste-to-energy plant.  It is  a residents  initiative to bring together,  neighbourhood people,  panchayat, and property developers , as joint stakeholders  in creating and sustaining  social assets such as  waste-to-energy plants,  sewage-free neighbourhood lakes,  community tree-planting in public space.
Hand-in-Hand,   an NGO runs  Mamallapuram waste-to-energy unit  fed on kitchen waste collected from households,  restaurants, and hotels.  They generate energy enough to light their 3-acre unit,  and also the street that leads from the plant to ECR. The land for the waste conversion unit has been given by the local panchayat. The Mamallapuram waste-to-energy plant is located on land that was used as a trash dump by the civic authorities.
Kelambakkam panchayat can learn a lesson here.   What they can do :
1) Set aside ,  for waste-energy conversion plant,   a part of the land that is now used for dumping and burning trash;
2) Seek guidance of  NGO – Hand-in-Hand, Exnora  Indrakumar ,  Vivekananda Kendra  -  to prepare a project proposal, and costs estimate.
3) Convene a ‘town-hall’ public hearing,  to share with residents  project details,  and proposal for a monthly waste-disposal charges  (like OMR Expressway toll)  to be  collected from residents,  shops, eating houses and corporates located in the panchayat area; and
4) Levy social infrastructure fee on property developers, in proportion to the scale, size and the number of apartments.

Cross-posted from My Take by GVK

OMR Greens for clean neighbourhood

Wayside halt on our way back from trash-busting at Kelambakkam

A neighbourhood weekly - The Chennai Outlook  (see Page 8) -  carries in its inaugural edition a feature - OMR Greens - A New Beginning for a clean OMR. The title sums up our agenda.
A clean OMR is possible . if we adopt a cluster approach to effective waste disposal and pre-laid draining system for discharge of sewage water treated at source with individual residential communities. While developers build sewage treatment plant within communities, they don't care about laying neighbourhood pipeline to carry their treated sewage discharge. It is pachayat's job, they say. Panchayat, on its part, cites lack of funds to take on such project. Developer-panchayat particiapation  is the way to go.
The story is the same in respect of  waste disposal strategy. Those of us in an apartments complex  adopt  'outsource and forget' waste   disposal policy.  We don't care where or how our outsourced garbage is disposed of  by service contractors. One guess is, much of our solid waste end up by the side of  Muthukkadu lake, along the road connecting Kelambakkam with ECR.
 OMR Greens would like to see a waste-to-energy conversion plant (like the Mamallapuram one) to serve a cluster of communities. We need to bring together,area-wise, residents, property developers and the panchayats for making this possible. Trash-busting is our way for mobilising public support for long-term solutions  to issues of common concern.

  I couldn't help feeling let down by the Kelambakkam panchayat. We were hoping the garbage collection staff would turn up with their tri-cycles to carry the garbage we collected, when  OMR Green volunteers,  went trash-busting on Kelambakkam Hight Street.
A small, but determined, group (one shy of the double digit number), carrying our cleaning gear, took out an 'Awareness Walk',  from Mantri Synergy main gate to Kelambakkam panchayat chief's office. Starting our trash-bust routine at the bus stop near panchayat chief's office, we worked our way to the road crossing at the market. The trash we collected was heaped up  on the roadside, to be collected by the panchayat garbage collection staff. They didn't show up. Nor did the Panchayat president, Mr G Venkatesan, on whose request, in the first place, we went trash-busting to Kelambakkam.
Mr Venkatesan had also offered to mobilize a group of local residents to join OMR Greens in trash-busting. What we found, in fact, were knots of curious onlookers hanging out on street-side, watching us cleaning up their trash.

 Stalwin was among the few who engaged us in conversation, and on learning of our agenda, offered to become an OMR Green member. Mr Stalwin, an engineer in a local company, said he would spread our message and mobilize a  local group for taking up bigger issues - stemming lake pollution, relocating a local chemical unit - requiring many more green activists.

Our Kelambakkam  'do'  was a learning experience. For instance, we ran into a rag-picker couple who carried their kids - Kartika, 2, and Kavya, 9 months -  in the garbage tricycle as they went about their daily rounds - 'there is no one at home to look after the kids'.. And then there was Santhosh, not older than my 7-year-old grandson, who helped his elder brother Ramesh in rag-picking. Asked why he didn't go to school Santhosh said, 'I don't know how to read'. But wasn't that the purpose of schooling - 'teaching kids to read and write' ?  That was a Q that ought to be addressed to Santhosh's parents.

OMR Greens on YouTube

OMR Greens go Trash-busting at Sai Temple

Members of  OMR Greens, a community initiative by Mantri Synergy apartments residents, went trash-busting at Sai Temple, Kelambakkam, early Sunday morning. With help from Mr S Kumar of Saravana Medicals, some Sai temple employees, and schoolboy Arvind, a group of 12  OMR Green-ers got down to cleaning up the garbage littered in the vicinity of the temple.
Earlier OMR Green members, carrying placards, set out from Mantri Synergy gate on an 'awareness' walk to Sai Temple. This was our idea of attracting public attention to our initiative. We didn't set Muthukkadu on fire, but we could say OMR Greens was being talked about and the  Kelambakkam panchayat president, Mr G Venkatesan,  made a request to OMR Greens that we organise Trash-busting on Kelambakkam main street (near the petrol station) one of these weekends.
At Sai Temple the panchayat chief deployed a tractor trolley, and a couple of tricycles to collect and carry the trash to the designated landfill

Sai Temple head priest Sri Acharya arranged for a few pongai saplings that we planted near the temple to mark the trash-busting - the third since OMR greens was launched in September last. Tne OMR community environment group has earlier carried out Trash-busting,to clear a garbage heap close to Hindustan University and on the main street at Padur.
OMR Greens participants at the Sai Temple event included Pravin, Pandian, Bala, Shine, Santhakumar, Neeraj, Pandey,  P S Sridhar and wife, Gopalan, Viswanath, Vasu, GVK and wife.
See OMR Greens Facebook page for Trash-busting video.

Join OMR Greens Walk to Sai Temple

OMR Greens, a Manti Synergy, Padur,  residents initiative, has plans this Sunday (Nov.18)  for Trash-busting in the vicinity of Kelambakkam Sai Temple. Kelambakkam panchayat chief Mr G Venkatesan has offered to join us with the panchayat garbage collection staff.
In a minute-long video for our YouTube channel, recorded this morning the Sai Temple head priest Acharya says the temple people would extend all possible support to our endeavour. Moreover he has offered to plant a few saplings in the temple vicinity in recognition of OMR Greens service activity.
Trash-busting,  we know,  isn't the thing that many of us are really excited about. Those who are not keen on messing up their hands can still help the cause by joining OMR Green-ers in the 20-min. 'Awarness Walk' from Mantri Synergy to Sai Temple on Sunday morning.
Our programme
Sunday, Nov.18, 2012
8.15 a m - Green Awareness Walk (starting from Mantri Synergy main gate.
8.30 - 10.00 a m - Trash-busting
10.05 - 1.15 a m - Tree-planting
Meanwhile Join us for online discussion on OMR Greens Facebook

Next Trash-busting, at Sai Temple, OMR

Sai Temple at Kelambakkam is probably the most well-maintained place of worship in our OMR neighbourhood.  We  see devotees helping the  maintenance staff in keeping the temple neat and clean. In the tradition of karsewa  performed by Sikhs visiting gurudwara,  I have observed Sai devotees visiting Kelambakkam devoting their time to cleaning the temple premises as part of their worship.

Outside is another story. Adjacent to the temple is a vacant plot that is being used as garbage dump by residents in the vicinity. I took this video to be able to share  with members of OMR Greens. And to suggest we take up the next trash-busting around Sai Temple. We have since decided the date - Sunday, Nov.18. The temple management has extended their support.

We plan to mobilize public awareness and support for our awareness programme,  among residents, Hindustan University  students and faculty members who partner with OMR Greens, our well-wishers in Kelambakkam - Saravana Medicals, and Murugesan of the firewood depot -  and Kelambakkam panchayat people. We also count on participation of Sai devotees.

OMR Greens: Panchayat chief chips in

Padur panchayat chief with OMR Greens
 Padur panchayat president Mr Chinnakutty offered to join in a  OMR Greens  initiative to mobilise volunteers among residents to clear a trash heap in front of Mantri Synergy.. "I can also work  to clear the trash ," he told OMR Greens founder member R Vasudevan when he heard Vasu, Gopalan and I (all senior citizens) planned to put on gloves and mouth-mask and get down to cleaning the trash heap that has accumulated on the roadside in front of our residential complex. Pleased with  panchayat chief's response, Gopalan offered to  buy him a OMR Greens designer T-shirt.

 

The three of us had gone to meet the panchayat chief to seek Panchayat's help  in moving the garbage we collect to the landfill  at Padur. OMR Greens, a community service initiative by Mantri Synergy residents, plans, what they call, a trash-buster operation on Saturday, Sept.29.  The idea came from the Ugly Indian, a Bangalore-based volunteers group,  comprising mostly software professionals from Oracle, IBM and other companies. A platoon of these professionals move in to scoop up garbage  from city streets. They call their trash-cleaning work  'spotfixing'. We call it 'trash-busting'.

On OMR  at Padur we have littered the pavement over so long, allowing a trash heap to grow right under our nose. We blame the panchayat for the sorry state of affairs. The panchayat chief , on his part, blames  residents of  gated communities for using the pavement outside their complex  as dumping ground .Mr Chinnakutty expressed helplessness in catching the culprits because the trash  was usually brought to be dumped late into  the night to escape detention. According to the panchayat chief, trash dumped on streets was too much to handle by a staff of 12 street cleaners, who work part-time. You can't get full-time cleaning staff on the pay panchayat offers - Rs.2,600 a month.