Chennai: Shanthi Ulhas, a resident of Mahalingapuram Madhavan Nair Street, at Kodambakkam in the city taken it upon herself to create awareness on the importance of segregation and composting.
“I have been living in the locality from 1989. Those days, the area was clean but when more flats were set up, waste management become difficult,” she says.
Shanthi has been practicing the same on her own for quite a while, but from 2015, she began stressing those around too regarding source segregation.
“Once there was a dustbin placed right in front of my home. We couldn’t open the doors, as people started littering around it as well. So I met the-then MLA Valarmathi and asked her to take steps to remove it. After this incident, I decided to focus on the need to keep the area neat and clean,” she recollects.
Explaining how waste is transformed, she says, “Newspapers and milk covers are sent for recycling. Plastics are used as quickly as possible. We empty our bins weekly once.”
On the support from her neighbours, “Most of them encouraged and appreciated, but hardly a few practiced what I said. Once they start doing it, they will find that it is not a task at all,” she says.
Instrumental in removing almost 50 bins from the locality, Shanthi has also served as the president of the Mahalingapuram Residents Welfare Association.
“Our association has a WhatsApp group with the Corporation. Also, every street has one representative, who informs the authorities if a bin is full,” she notes.
Apart from focusing on these issues, she is also a member of the Organic Food Market, with the related products being sold from her parking lot every Sunday.
She can be reached at 9841775125.