There is little doubt that a lot of waste could have fresh life in some
other form and can be kept out of Chennai’s garbage bins, with
sufficient commitment from citizens. As these columns have highlighted
over several days now, mixing waste of different kinds and sending it to
the dump sites where it is mostly burnt only creates problems for
suburban residents.
Toxic fumes are released into the air, and a lot of harmful chemicals
leach into the groundwater, while the area used to dump mountains of
trash is constantly growing.
Modifying the ‘use and throw’ culture through a massive city campaign
could cut a lot of the trash. But the growth of the petrochemical
industry and the availability of cheap plastics have dulled the
conscience of consumers, and removed the incentive to carry their own
bags. Excessive packaging, much of it plastic, is also increasing
garbage by volumes.
It is worth mentioning here that according to Edward Humes, the author
of “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash,” 92 per cent of
Americans have potentially harmful plastic chemicals in their urine. If
plastic rules the lives of Indians, and there is no effort to reduce its
entry into environmental streams, health impacts may be a cause for
worry here too.
Since it is flimsy plastic bags with little recycling value that clog
the City, the answer to this free-floating problem would be to enhance
the price of bags in shops, under the rules that the Ministry of
Environment and Forests already has in place.
Charge high price for plastic bags
At present, the price charged by a minority of establishments is a
pittance. If consumers had to pay a high price for something that they
always got free or nearly free, the rational response would be to bring
their own bags. The more environmentally-conscious establishments could
provide customers with cloth bags emblazoned with their colourful logos
and names, and thus be assured of free advertising for months. Ireland,
Humes says in his book, was particularly successful with costly plastic
bags, and after some time, people carting their stuff in a plastic tote
were seen as committing a ‘social gaffe.’
Like the India story, the pricing was initially resisted in Ireland by
stores acting as proxies for industry, but the many social benefits of
going ‘plastics-free’ including lower costs to consumers finally won.
To arrive at such a point, the Government of Tamil Nadu and the citizen
would have to mount a massive mobilisation campaign, involving schools,
colleges, the media and big names in trade and industry, the latter
publicly ranked on compliance.
Cutting the amount of wet waste — which mars the ‘clean city’ goal —
calls for a fertile idea: decentralised composting. Several hundred
converted residents practice it even now, but in a dense metropolis,
chock-a-block with apartments and slums, it remains a challenge.
The Corporation of Chennai and its concessionaire in some zones, Ramky
Enviro, must be compelled to create systems to compost organic waste,
and sell compost back to the public in parks and corporation offices as
proof of their work.
If the compost is not on sale, it would mean the system is not in place.
The ‘tipping fee’ model of waste management of the Corporation
involving massive contractual payments to transport mixed waste to
monstrous landfills in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur, and possibly other
future sites, does not sit well with the objective of a Clean Chennai.
Many citizens, of course, would fault the ‘trashy’ state of Chennai’s
civic infrastructure for their own scepticism. If the Chennai
Corporation, Highways and Public Works Departments can only provide
muddy, dirty, and broken footpaths, debris-lined roads, and canals and
waterways no better than sewers, would individual clean-up efforts add
up to anything?
The answer depends on how far the civic body and the other agencies are willing to go to win over the sceptics.
Almost a century ago, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Navjivan (Nov. 2, 1919)
that there should be no ditches in which water can collect, and lead to
malaria. He also stressed the importance of sanitation and cleanliness.
Yet, most drain projects of the Corporation under way even today under
the JNNURM scheme are nothing but massive ditches with stagnating water,
left half done. They tempt the public to throw waste into them, since
they already are receptacles of filth. The city suburbs are no
different. Such failures do not absolve the careless consumerist.
Today, even less is too much. Buying things that last, and do not have
much packaging, is wisdom. Composting is green. Reducing, reusing,
recycling, and upcycling as a City Mission are the key.
My Chennai My Right, an inititative by The Hindu
Send us pictures of extreme instances of garbage affecting normal life in Chennai.
We would also like to hear about what you are doing to manage waste
Email us at myright@thehindu.co.in
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Twitter: @chennaicentral
Hashtag: #cleanchennai 
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