BMC awards society for green initiative

Setting an example for the city on waste management, a housing society from Mahim has won high praise from the municipal corporation for generating less than 30 kg of waste daily.

The G/N ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation recently presented a 'Swachhata' award to Fortune Heights for its green initiative that was started seven years ago.

The members have adopted practices such as using cloth bags for shopping, buying material that has lesser packaging material. The society has installed separate bins for Tetra Pak cartons and e-waste.

The society members first started segregating waste into wet, dry and non-recyclable waste. For seven years, they have initiated various recycling activities which helps them to recycle, reuse and the generated waste.

While they started composting the wet waste, the compost is later on used for gardening in the society premises. The seasonal vegetables grown on the terrace are given to society's flatmates on rotation so that every flat enjoy eating organic vegetables grown on their terrace.

Speaking about the initiative, managing committee member Ramesh Modi said, "We started the initiative for the environment and for the next generation. After the waste segregation, we also started water harvesting, recycling tetra pak cartons, e-waste recycling in order to recycle and reuse as much waste as possible. Further, we will also be installing solar panels in order to generate electricity."

According to the BMC, the corporation has taken up the initiative to encourage societies to go eco-friendly. Ramakant Biradar, assistant municipal commissioner, said, "We are awarding the societies that are working more on environment-friendly initiative besides wet waste segregation. This will help others to get inspired and come up with different ways to recycle their generated waste. So far we have 30 societies in the ward who does compost."

FUTURE PLAN

Installation of solar panels to save electricity

SWACHH JOURNEY

2010 Monisha Narke begins segregating waste at her home 
2012 Fortune Heights takes the plunge 
2012 Starts recycling used tetra-packs
2013 Sets up organic garden
28 Number of apartments in Fortune Heights
It has collected 3,000 used tetra-packs in past five years

WORTH EMULATING

• The society segregates waste into categories – wet biodegradable; dry recyclable and non-recyclable
   
• Wet bio waste is converted into compost, which is used for trees in the compound and the organic farm on the terrace
   
• Dry waste goes for recycling every fortnight 
   
• Only non-recyclable trash is given to the civic body for solid waste management
   
• E-waste is collected once in three months
   
• According to the members, each household generates nearly a kilo of waste daily. Of this, 700 gms is bio-degradable, 200 gms is dry waste and 100 gms is non-recyclable 
   
• Rainwater harvesting is also done in the society