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Power to you

Aakash

Whether you're a single person or a large city, make sure your waste is not wasted.

Campuses go green Back

Educational institutes across India generate various types of waste every day. For instance, a medical college discards used syringes and cotton swabs, apart from creating paper, plastic and food waste. Whatever the waste may be, some colleges have shown that segregation, recycling and reusing can result in effective waste management.

In 2008, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, started its solid waste management programme with the aim of ‘throwing nothing away’. “We started this programme as a small initiative to keep our institute and campus as environmentally friendly as possible,” says Dr Sunil Chandy, director of the college.

All the waste from the campus’s hospital, college and hostel is collected and segregated into wet, dry and plastic waste. Biodegradable materials such as fruit peels and tea and coffee grains are converted into manure in compost pits. Non-biodegradable materials such as paper and plastic waste are segregated and resold by the college.

Besides this, cow dung from the campus’ cattle shed is converted into biogas in the college’s biogas digester and used to fire stoves in the canteen. Food waste from this shed is decomposed in a unit by earthworms and the waste generated by the worms is dried, packed and sold as vermicompost, a valuable organic fertilizer. This waste management model, which employs 200 workers today, has been so effective that the college get back 40% of its investment cost from the recycling of waste itself.

A similar waste management model is in place at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. A biogas plant with a capacity of 500 kg converts kitchen waste into biogas and since 2011, it has saved the institute close to 4,000 kg of LPG. The flora on the campus also benefits from the organic fertilizer that is produced by a vermicompost unit and all recyclable waste is sent to recyclers through a waste pickers' savings group that comprises more than 1,500 workers.

Besides CMC and TISS, other universities too have taken steps towards making their campuses environment-friendly. For instance, Major Shiv Kiran who started the campaign at the University of Hyderabad says, “We convert around 3–3.5 tonnes of waste into resources every day. Most of this consists of food remains, which are composted. We have not needed to install a biogas plant since all our internal needs have been taken care of through simpler ways.”

Similarly, the University of Pune has adopted simple methods like setting up compost pits within the campus. They are managed by waste pickers working with the organization SWaCH, who also segregate wet waste from dry waste and sell dry recyclables to scrap dealers. This becomes a valuable addition to their income. The Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha in Pune has also ensured that only a minimal amount of waste goes to the city’s dumping yard. The canteen and campus streetlights run on the biogas created in the biogas plant, while the gardens are well maintained with manure from the compost pits.

These institutions show that it is possible to reduce the amount of waste generated by them. They can show the way for others across the country.

  
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