IS THAT REALLY WASTE ?

Every day, and everywhere waste is generated. This waste can harm us really badly if we don’t know how to dispose it. Starting off with a quote by Pete Seeger, an American Folk Singer,” If it can’t be reduced, reused repaired, re built, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or composted then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production “and I certainly think that this statement is a strong yet true statement.

We generate waste all the time and wherever we go. For example, this paper I have written (typed) on, will soon just be a piece of trash a part of a landfill. Most of the waste that we generate has a harmful impact on our lives. The government hires people for such jobs of treating and disposing the waste properly but these workers don’t understand the importance of their jobs. What they will do is cover it up with some dry leaves and burn it. If you’re not yet getting the picture, then it is us wearing oxygen masks while walking around the city.

What I had in Mind

Waste Management

· Environmental effects

· Waste segregation

· Curtailing our waste

· Initiatives taken on the ill-waste management skills

Chapter 1 - Environmental effects

Water Pollution:

Surface water Contamination: Wastes that end up in water bodies negatively change the chemical composition of the water. Technically this is called water pollution. This will affect all ecosystems existing in the water. It can also cause harm to animals that drink from such polluted waters.

Leachate: Liquid that forms as water trickles through contaminated areas is called leachate. It forms a very harmful mixture of chemicals that may result in hazardous substances entering surface water, ground water, or soil

Land Pollution:

Soil Contamination: Hazardous Chemicals that get into the soil(contaminants) can harm plants when they take the contamination through their roots. If we eat such plants and animals that have been in contact with such soils, there can be a negative impact on our health

Chapter 2 – Waste Segregation

In India, there are certain wastes/ garbage items that are kept aside to be sold to the Kabadiwala. These Items include newspapers, used bottles, magazines, carry bags, old books, oil cans, glass items, notebooks, etc. this is one form of segregation, which is done at most households. Segregation is the separation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste for proper disposal and recycling.

Segregating our waste is essential as the amount of waste being generated today causes immense problems. There are certain items that are not biodegradable but can be reused or recycled, in fact it is believed that a larger portion of the waste can be recycled, a part of it can be composted, and only a smaller portion of it is real waste that has no more use and has to be discarded. Improper segregation may cause mixing in landfills. This in turn can lead to toxic release in the ground and eventual contamination of ground water. Methane gas is likely to be released in such circumstances which is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases. Proper segregation leads to proper recycling. Most of the waste can be reused and recycled however, improper segregation process can cause, many things to be left out from the recycling process.

What most of us don’t realize is that unsegregated waste from households is sorted by rag pickers. They segregate our waste with their bare hands. Often glass and other waste objects may cause cuts and bruises and also cause infection leading to severe illness.

SEGREGATION IN BINS

1. Wet waste (Kitchen waste)—GREEN BIN

2. Dry waste—BLUE BIN

~ Plastics

~Paper Items

~Metal Items

~Glass Items

~Rubber/Thermocol

~Cosmetics

~Old mops/Sponges

~Ceramics/Wood chippings

3. Reject Waste—RED BIN

~Sanitary waste

~Sharps

~Insert’s

Chapter 4- Curtailing Waste Production

Waste. It can be just a post-it note. It is just a word to many across the world but to the remaining minimal population, we are trying to make a difference by erasing this word from the dictionary. Waste is unwanted or unusable material, substances, or by-products. This is the exact definition but it is not what we call waste these days. Not all of our waste is unusable material. In earlier times, waste was what this definition states but nowadays, waste is like a broken pencil. Our left over food is definitely not unusable. It can be turned into compost but since it is such a long and tiring process, nobody is willing to do it.

Waste Hierarchy refers to the 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse which classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms of waste minimization. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste. The first action is to prevent the generation of waste. The next preferred action is to reduce the generation of waste i.e. by reusing. The next is recycling which would include composting. Following this step is material recovery and waste-to-energy. Energy can be recovered from processes i.e. landfill and combustion, at this level of the hierarchy. The final action is disposal, in landfills or through incineration without energy recovery. This last step is the final resort for waste which has not been prevented, diverted or recovered. The waste hierarchy represents the progression of a product or material through the sequential stages of the pyramid of waste management. The hierarchy represents the latter parts of the life-cycle for each product.

The life-cycle of a product begins with design, then proceeds through manufacture, distribution, use and then follows through the waste hierarchy's stages of reuse, recovery, recycling and disposal. Each of the above stages of the life-cycle offers opportunities for policy intervention, to rethink the need for the product, to redesign to minimize waste potential, to extend its use.^[4] The key behind the life-cycle of a product is to optimize the use of the world's limited resources by avoiding the unnecessary generation of waste.

Chapter 5- Initiatives taken on the ill-waste management skills

Some residents of India have also realized the seriousness of this issue. They have consulted and pressurized the BBMP to take some action. They are all realizing this because of it effects: health issues and environmental climate change. Things such as unsanitary water has also come because of these very ill waste management skills. Clubs such as Rotary, have taken this into deep concern. New clubs forming such as ORR-Sarjapur Rising or a very famous and known one like Whitefield Rising are coming up because of such problems.

If you are interested, please visit these websites:

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management#Waste_hierarchy

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_hierarchy

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_sorting

· http://whitefieldrising.org/

· https://www.facebook.com/ORRSarjapurRising/

· http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/forward-bellandur/blog-posts/fix-orr-Sarjapur-road-fed-up-citizens-protest

· https://www.rotary.org/en

· rotaryinteract.org