3RD EPISODE :- DONT WASTE THE GARBAGE

SO HAVE UR PARENTS HAVE DONE THE HOMEWORK GIVEN BY AMIR KHAN SO BE READY TO KNOW THE HOMEWORK ON THIS SUNDAY ..............................................WITH ME AND AMIR KHAN

1,60,000 metric tons—that is the amount of garbage India generates every year! That's about 1.5 tons of waste per head per month! Most of this is wet waste, which can be used to produce fertilizer and generate electricity. Instead, huge mounds of it lie piled up in our cities and villages, posing a serious threat to public health and the environment. Disease and toxins fly in the air and leach into the water and the ground, triggering ailments ranging from cholera and asthma to more serious problems affecting the brain and other organs.

In this episode we bring you solutions. Some are simple ways to treat waste in our homes, so that we may reuse, recycle and revive the earth. While we must reduce our waste footprint, we must also put pressure on local authorities, especially at the municipal level, to ensure responsible waste management. We must demand that they set up effective mechanisms for the collection, segregation and treatment of solid waste.

With rapid urbanization and incessant population growth, the amount of garbage India produces is only going to grow. Let us stop pinching our noses and shutting our eyes to the garbage around us. We are the ones producing it so it's up to us to ensure that it gets the right treatment, so we are able to get the good out of it, just like any other productive resource.

Creating energy from waste

Dr Sharad Kale’s Nisargruna biogas technology has been used by many organizations to set up over 160 biogas plants. Sampurn(e)arth, one organization in Mumbai, tells us more

What are the requirements to set up a biogas plant?

• Land along with 3 phase power supply and water supply.
• Segregation of waste at source to ensure only the organic portion is sent to the plant.
• Scope for usage of the gas.
• Capital investment (that usually pays off in 1 to 5 years).

How much waste is needed for the plant?
The plant is best suited for processing bulk quantities of waste, ranging from 100 kg to 30,000 kg per day. Multiple plants of these capacities can be set up to process an even larger quantity. Biogas plants have been set up at many educational institutes, industrial and corporate campuses, and hospitals and residential complexes. Several municipalities have also installed them for processing market or agricultural waste.

What types of waste can be processed by this technology?
There are many types:

• Food and garden waste
• Offerings made at religious places
• Biodegradable municipal solid waste
• Waste from fisheries and slaughterhouses
• Biomass generated from sewage plants

What has been your experience with using the Nisargruna biogas technology?
It has been pretty good so far. It has helped us do our bit in solving the mammoth problem of solid waste management in a sustainable, economically viable and eco-friendly manner. It has saved emissions of greenhouse gases from dumping grounds and those during transportation of waste to dumping grounds.

The biogas plants have also enabled the institutions that have installed them to generate methane gas and nutrient-rich, weed-free manure. More institutions are gradually recognizing the value and possible uses of such gas—for cooking (by replacing LPG), for the generation of electricity, and by bottling into large cylinders for use in industries or vehicles.

Moreover, the technology is quite easy to operate and therefore can generate employment for the marginalized sections of society, such as the thousands of women waste pickers who we believe are the invisible environmentalists of this country.

adable materials such as paper and plastic waste are segregated and resold by the college.various types of waste every day. For instance, a medical college discards used syringes and cotton swabs, apart from creating paper, plastic and food waste. Whatever the waste may be, some colleges have shown that segregation, recycling and reusing can result in effective waste management.

In 2008, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, started its solid waste management programme with the aim of ‘throwing nothing away’. “We started this programme as a small initiative to keep our institute and campus as environmentally friendly as possible,” says Dr Sunil Chandy, director of the college.
All the waste from the campus’s hospital, college and hostel is collected and segregated into wet, dry and plastic waste. Biodegradable materials such as fruit peels and tea and coffee grains are converted into manure in compost pits. Non-biodegr

Besides this, cow dung from the campus’ cattle shed is converted into biogas in the college’s biogas digester and used to fire stoves in the canteen. Food waste from this shed is decomposed in a unit by earthworms and the waste generated by the worms is dried, packed and sold as vermicompost, a valuable organic fertilizer. This waste management model, which employs 200 workers today, has been so effective that the college get back 40% of its investment cost from the recycling of waste itself.
A similar waste management model is in place at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. A biogas plant with a capacity of 500 kg converts kitchen waste into biogas and since 2011, it has saved the institute close to 4,000 kg of LPG. The flora on the campus also benefits from the organic fertilizer that is produced by a vermicompost unit and all recyclable waste is sent to recyclers through a waste pickers' savings group that comprises more than 1,500 workers.
Besides CMC and TISS, other universities too have taken steps towards making their campuses environment-friendly. For instance, Major Shiv Kiran who started the campaign at the University of Hyderabad says, “We convert around 3–3.5 tonnes of waste into resources every day. Most of this consists of food remains, which are composted. We have not needed to install a biogas plant since all our internal needs have been taken care of through simpler ways.”
Similarly, the University of Pune has adopted simple methods like setting up compost pits within the campus. They are managed by waste pickers working with the organization SWaCH, who also segregate wet waste from dry waste and sell dry recyclables to scrap dealers. This becomes a valuable addition to their income. The Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha in Pune has also ensured that only a minimal amount of waste goes to the city’s dumping yard. The canteen and campus streetlights run on the biogas created in the biogas plant, while the gardens are well maintained with manure from the compost pits.

These institutions show that it is possible to reduce the amount of waste generated by them. They can show the way for others across the country.