1 Community Based Waste Management: Some Key Experiences Mrs Almitra H Patel, Member Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management in Class 1 Cities in India Ranchi,

2 The best way to keep streets clean is not to dirty them at all

3 Open waste breeds half-wild dogs that bite kids, spread rabies and attack village livestock

4 What is the answer? First, minimise all wastes :

5 Park and Garden wastes can be composted on-site or used as fuel or sent to cremation grounds

6 Managing all wastes at home is best. Keep kitchen waste separate, and compost it at home

7 Use potted plants or plant beds : waste put onto soil in thin layers decomposes soon and is fertiliser

8 Apartment bldgs can compost their wastes in very little space

9 Planter-composting over drains beautifies the street while keeping leachate off the road

10 Vermi-bins can beautify pavements but should not make them too narrow to walk on

11 Houses on a street can use common compost bins

12 Common compost-tanks for a moholla need air and drainage

13 Roadside dustbins are always dirty. Remove them and grow a garden in that spot to keep it clean

14 Moholla waste has to be collected door-to-door at fixed times

15 Handcarts can be of many types, but all should have bins to avoid manual loading of waste

16 It helps to have a shelf and storage space for sorted dry waste

17 “Dry” recyclable waste can be collected weekly in larger carts

18 Moholla or City must provide space for Collecting and Storing “dry” recyclable wastes

19 Also space to collect truckloads of dry waste for shipment out

20 Otherwise it will encroach on roads or even riverbeds

21 Market waste is easy to compost

22 Use space in Pumping Stations

23 Larger quantities of waste are harder to handle

24 and need costly mechanised equipment for turning & sieving

25 Unturned dumps cause terrible pollution; leachate ruins soil & water

26 Bulk wastes are composted with the help of cowdung-water + rock phosphate or low-cost biocultures

27 Form waste into “wind-rows” and spray with bioculture

28 Proper moisture control and turning is essential

29 Such compost is used by farmers and returns nutrients to the soil

30 But plastic wastes are a major problem in composting and need very costly machinery to remove

31 Thermocole and plastic carrybags can be recycled if kept separate

32 Citizens can help by keeping “dry” waste out of kitchen waste

33 This is the law of the land now: daily doorstep collection of wet wastes for composting, dry wastes given separately