This woman from Ghaziabad can turn garbage into gold

Ever since the landfill collapse happened at Ghazipur, people of Indirapuram have been fretting about the issue of waste disposal.

A few days ago, residents of Ahinsa Khand and Shakti Khand had taken out a rally to protest against the garbage dump cum landfill site located near the Indirapuram Sewage Treatment Plant. Residents allege that the garbage dump frequently catches fire and burns for days. Worse, it also spews dark smoke translating to health hazards. However, officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority said that the site cannot be shifted owing to an increase in the transportation cost of garbage. The officials have said that the high rises of the township are largely responsible for the garbage heaps on this site.

However, Deepti Mittal, a resident of Panchsheel Wellington, a society in Crossings Republik seems to have the answers. A social worker and a senior citizen, Mittal has been working on the subject of waste segregation and home composting for quite a while now. Infact, over the last one year, she has also been conducting workshops to educate residents.

Mittal is of the belief that managing waste at source is the only way to prevent the formation of huge landfills and burning of garbage. Wet waste, which mostly includes vegetable peels, food waste, etc has to be separated from dry waste, which mostly includes paper and plastic. Both of these once separated can be reused separately. The wet waste goes on to become compost while the paper and plastic or polythene can be recycled. “This actually leaves us with no waste at all. But if both the dry and wet waste are mixed at source, they become unusable and can only end up at a landfill site,” Mittal shares.

Here is a video; through which Mittal demonstrates the procedure for dealing with wet waste.

Mittal believes that compost has significant monetary and agricultural worth. “The compost generated from waste can be used for horticulture. It can also be sold to people or horticulturists who are involved in activities like organic farming, etc. The compost generated can also be used in residential societies. In view of these obvious benefits, I have termed the composting initiative as ‘waste to gold,” Mittal said.

Mittal rues that there is a general resistance towards composting techniques. This is because residents are wary about segregating waste. “Somehow nobody takes the onus of waste segregation. It is also not always fair to rely on the government bodies for such cleanliness measures. People should do it on their own,” she added.