Chennai: A natural composting unit is a win-win situation for mother earth and for people, which is why residents of Regal Palm Gardens, Velacheri wasted no time in setting up the facility after the civic body promulgated the rule that large apartment complexes must take care of waste.
Inside the vast campus of Regal Palm Gardens in Velacheri, which has 10 blocks and 412 families, a huge amount of green waste in generated daily.
The Flat Owners Association procured three composting machines and a shredder to break down the waste.
Speaking to News Today, secretary of Regal Palm Gardens Apartment Owners Association, G Subramanian said, ”the government promulgated the order in June, soon at a cost of Rs 5 lakh, we set up the natural composting unit. Over all, 290-300 kilograms of green waste is generated and a machine has a capacity of composting 100 kilograms.”
F Block representative, Jessy says, ”After we brought in the three bin rule, all families segregate waste at their homes efficiently. While the green waste is collected daily and taken to the composting unit, the other two bins- rejects and recyclable waste are cleared by the civic body twice in a week.”
The association has made the activity very strict on its campus. It is learnt that if the waste is not segregated by a family, they have instructed the staff to not pick it.
B Block representative, Mili Karthik said, ”Having started a few months ago, it is still at a very nascent stage. The residents are just waking up to segregation.”
The only woe being, the residents want the civic body to find solutions on handling rejects and recyclable waste.
”They must take medical and recyclable waste separately from us. It must be segregated from general waste. They must make it akin to Bengaluru. We had trained the residents to segregate on this basis, but the Corporation lorry takes all of it together.”
The association is happy to see the results. The residents here have stopped using plastic covers. They even take containers to collect food from the delivery executives.
Mili says, ”We have asked families to mildly rinse and dry the aluminum pouches and plastic covers, including milk packets and then dispose them into the bin. This is mainly to avoid stink.”