Garbage disposal has been a serious concern since quite some time now in India. The stench and ugly sight of garbage dumped along the roadside is not an uncommon sight here. Have you ever thought where your garbage goes?
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All the garbage that you give to the garbage collector every morning  is dumped on an abandoned land in your city called a landfill.  Are you wondering what’s wrong in dumping garbage on a landfill? Well, landfills create land pollution(and in some cases ground water contamination). The waste is not subjected to recycling, composting or any form of environmental treatment thus causing contaminating the environment.
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While the nation tries to solve the waste management problem, an IT professional, Charvi Parikh, has found out a no-costs involved technique to curb this problem. Back in Netherlands she was surprised to see that people separate their trash into dry and wet waste - a practise that was alien to people back in India.
Charvi found out that the municipality in Holland provided separate dustbins to each household to dump wet and dry garbage(ideally should be practised in every country). The wet garbage was used for composting into manure for plants and the dry waste was collected and recycled.
Thus in July,2010 was born Me2Green an idea of applying this method in colleges, weddings and corporates, these being the most waste producing areas. She felt that if dustbins for different types of waste could be set up in such places, it would assist the municipality besides help transform the mindsets of people towards separating waste.
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Initially started with weddings, she kept 4 different colored dustbins to help people throw the right waste in the right bin. The Yellow dust bins for plastic, blue for paper, green for wet waste, including leftover food, red for non recyclable items like chocolate wrappers.
Waste from the yellow and blue bins went to the recycling units, those from the green bins went for composting to get converted into manure for plants, while those from the red ones sent to the municipality for proper disposal.
Charvi Parekh’s idea aims to help over 30,000 people get used to the waste segregation idea over the next three years. ‘Me2Green’ plans to visit at least 10 big canteens (colleges and corporate houses) this year to demonstrate the concept.
In the meantime, while this technique is still gathering wide masses, why don’t we all, at our homes, begin this easy to imply method, and help Ms Charvi, in our own, not-at-all small way?
Courtesy: Smilyo , DNA
*If you know any unsung hero who is making a social impact in the society, write to us : alister[at]milaap[dot]org. To make an impact on our society, you are most welcome to volunteer with us.
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