Green Waste Management

A new approach towards waste waste management.....

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Green Waste Management is a term used to describe any environmentally friendly way of processing the products that has been discarded. In this kind of waste management, focus is generally on finding the ways that could help to reuse or recycle the discarded articles so that they are not dumped in landfills. It also aims at disposing the toxic waste in such a way that it does not disturb the environment.

Green Waste Management intends to promote the principle 6R’s - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Repair and Rethink ( Grass Root Network Society, GRRN, USA) -thereby developing a sustainable model for waste management.  This model encourages a decentralized mechanism for waste management.  The approach of Green Waste Management not only suggests 6R’s principle but also supports the concept – wealth from waste.

The first and foremost important factor to remember after 6R’s principle is the segregation of wastes. Normally wastes can be categorized in to two, viz bio degradable and non-bio degradable. Toxic and e-waste is also included and it is a separate category. But 85% of the household wastes are bio degradable and it can be easily disposed by any person through some effective methods followed by segregation. Green Waste Management varies from setting to setting. So it suggests centralized waste treatment in some occasion and it may vary in different categories. On such occasions it can be developed as a business model by supplying waste management equipments to such categories and generating employment as well as value added products out of it. Hence, N.G.Os, Local Self Groups, Kudumbasree etc. can play an effective role in this system. Thus, the Green Waste Management is a boon to the environment as it uses the techniques that disposes the waste in an eco friendly way.

This strategy would lead to an interim scenario of barest minimum of waste generation that needs to be disposed at the source itself and ultimately to the concept of Zero Waste. Through an integrated approach and availability of technology, the message of waste minimization and segregation would be spread to households and institutions. This would be accompanied by maximizing recycling as well as recovery of energy and manure using appropriate technological interventions. To start with, the focus should be on awareness building. Simultaneously the regulatory framework would be strengthened through proper enforcement of existing laws and restructuring the existing laws to give more teeth for enforcement. Ultimately energy, wealth and resource can be recovered from wastes and thereby prove that it is not a finger burning issue but a lucrative and viable idea. Concepts like Bio Park, Green School, Eco Parks, Knowledge Centre etc. will give more thrust to the MACFAST Clean and Green City Tiruvalla Project.