The world ahead: The need to effectively implement waste management in cities.

Kumkum Sinha

People from cities often have such complaints, of which they themselves are also a part. The question is who makes the city the way it is? Here one face of a city neglected in the world of ideas can be talked about. For example, mountains of garbage in cities present an unpleasant picture. Passing through it, we can see how hundreds and thousands of eagles and other birds of prey keep hovering over this mountain.

Stray cows and dogs keep roaming here and there in search of food. Continuous smoke rising can also be seen. All these are extremely harmful for the environment. Everyone knows the problem that foul smell has created. As soon as the drivers reach here, they close their windows and the people walking on foot or riding in auto rickshaws put their hands on their noses. In this way, every person in the city knows what a mountain of garbage is, what it looks like and how high it is.

In fact, the bigger the city, the higher the mountain of garbage becomes. People living in villages can hardly imagine this. Since all the big and small facilities of life are available in cities, hence the people living here make themselves comfortable with the mountains of garbage and the problems caused by it. They say that even the kicks of a milch cow look lovely.

If only these urban people, instead of being comfortable with it, had taken responsibility upon themselves and made some efforts towards proper disposal of garbage, then a mountain of it would not have been created. But the bitter truth is that people do not want to face even a little struggle. All types of waste are collected in one bin and given to the sweeper, who is casually called the ragpicker.

He says that in this fast-paced life there is no time to think and do about this issue and in this way the whole responsibility is shifted to the government and it is shirked away. It is definitely the responsibility of the government, but we should also fulfill our civic duty. One should think not only about the interest of the family but also about the interest of the society and the country and do something for it like a conscious citizen.

Along with keeping our homes clean, it is important to keep the surrounding environment clean as well. Garbage should neither be thrown here and there nor contribute to creating a mountain of garbage. This will happen only when we all understand the seriousness of this problem and work in this direction while fixing our respective responsibilities.

It is a good thing that many voluntary organizations, agencies and social or voluntary workers are involved in the campaigns run by the government for proper disposal of waste. All of them are engaged in this noble work from their respective levels, so that new mountains of garbage are not created nor the ones that have already been created rise any higher. It is just necessary for them to get the support of every house. We have to include their call to separate wet and dry waste at home in our daily routine.

Once we make it a habit, this work will not seem like a burden, rather we will feel relaxed by doing it. It needs to be kept in mind that only when we mix wet and dry waste, it comes under the category of waste. But these are different resources because they can then be recycled to make useful things.

Plastic items (foils, bottles etc.), waste paper (cardboards, sweet boxes, old newspapers, receipts etc.), electronic waste (old computers, laptops, TVs, mobiles, batteries, electrical wires, etc. which are not repairable) We can collect them separately and give them to the concerned companies or agencies for recycling. Then comes the wet waste, which is vegetable and fruit peels coming out of our kitchen. We should not allow these to become part of the garbage, rather they should be used to make natural fertilizer. We can do this work at both individual and collective levels.

It is the responsibility of the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) of every small and big society to ensure that wet and dry waste is collected separately in their society. Dry waste should be recycled and natural fertilizer should be made from wet waste. If this work is done systematically then it can also become a source of income.

Waste management can be implemented effectively by looking at reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering waste. If we can be a little conscious and take care of ourselves as part of our civic responsibility, then the earth can be made truly habitable.