City Lights

This Residential Complex Of Bhubaneswar Is An Example Of How To Efficiently Manage Wastage!





This Residential Complex Of Bhubaneswar Is An Example Of How To Efficiently Manage Wastage!

Few months back, the Royal Lagoon Society was just like any other locality of the city where solid waste was disposed to the landfills. In order to make the garbage management system more environment-friendly, a group of women, mostly housewives, of this housing complex took upon themselves the initiative of turning their kitchen garbage into compost. It all began in September 2015 when few ladies encouraged more than 175 fellow residents of the locality to join them in this noble cause.

“Initially this waste segregation was an addition to my work in kitchen but it was interesting to see participation of my kids in getting the best out of waste. Moreover we are getting back composted black gold for my balcony plants which make them bloom really well.” recalls Bhawana, a housewife.

Following a lot of discussion and meetings within the society members, they eventually decided to install composting bins in their premises. As of now, two bins each have been placed on the terraces of their apartments which are used for dumping waste materials by the residents. Within a month’s time, the waste gets converted into compost which is either utilized by the society’s horticulture team or freely distributed among the residents. Besides the participation of young and old in this process, kids are also enthusiastically involved to reduce waste.

Seven-year-old Arindam Singh finds the composting process to be quite fascinating. He shares with us that, “As of now, my friends and me can distinguish between the different kind of wastes, color of bins and also the exact procedure of disposing the garbage in respective bins. We devote at least five minutes everyday to check on composting.”  

In their pursuit of a green future, these environmentally conscious people have until now generated 80kg of compost besides recycling 3000kg of paper and 400kg of plastic waste. While they started with 2 bins at one tower, now they have 16 bins in 8 towers.

“At a time when the country is talking about Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, we are doing our bit by managing our own wastes. That apart, we are extremely fortunate to have the support of so many households who are now collectively working as one towards zero-wastage,” says Ajay, a retired naval officer.

Also recently on the occasion of World Environment Day, society members organised a Green Gifting Utsav where sapling of medicinal plants were distributed to kids. Considering all these green measures adopted by the Royal Lagoon Society, they can really become a model for other societies in Bhubaneswar to replicate! 

Author: Nidhi lohia

Read more from author