Ecology

Solid Waste Management

I have covered many topics in The Hindu and my pet area of writing has boiled down to Solid Waste Management. If there is any single solution to the problems of health and hygiene that the country faces, it is so simple - source segregation of wastes by the individual and efficient SWM by the Government. I practice it at home myself and there can be nothing simpler and convenient than this - drop all the day's bio-degradable wastes in a container, paper, plastics and glass separately. These are all individual wastes that can be thoroughly recycled. The only wastes that will finally go to the dumping ground are the non-recyclable hazardous wastes.

But it is also my realisation that the simplest are the most difficult to practice. The reason I discovered, the human mind likes to put in a lot of effort to achieve something. It can settle down for simple and cost-free solutions. The Indian mind finds it the most difficult habit to surrender to the rule of law. And the politicians want their votes in tact. So they do not want to step forward to take any creative measures to solve problems such as garbage management as imposition of rational ideas might make them lose the favour of the masses. And so the vicious circle continues.

It took a tsunami and destruction of hundreds of human lives to know the important of protecting the coastline against the vagaries of nature. I do not think the country should wait for a similar catastrophe, till it addresses the most important issue of composting its bio-degradable wastes and recycling the non-biodegradable ones.

One of my articles on lack of solid waste management that appeared in The Hindu.

Photo: The mangroves of Pichavaram have served as a natural protective cover in breaking the waves of the tsunami and weakening its force.