Village makes wealth from waste

In the village, cow’s urine and dung and egg shells are turned into organic manure and sold. Fruits peels are used to make washing powder.

While the city corporations are struggling to make effective solid management, the village near Periyanaickenpalayam has roped in residents, created awareness on the need to segregate waste and better still, made money out of a mound of trash. Here, at the village, anything that is remotely rendered useless is put to use in a productive manner.

The panchayat maintains about 17 cows and as many bulls and the urine is collected to prepare Panchagavyam, a concoction that could be used as a pest repellent and can also be used as one of the ingredients in making toilet cleaners. The cow dung is used to make manure and the organic waste collected each day from 15,000 households in the area is used to feed the cattle.

The waste generated by households is meticulously segregated. Egg shells are collected, dried and powdered to be used as manure for the rose plants that are grown in the village.

Rotten, wet decomposed waste is spread in vacant land, waste water from the bio gas plant is sprinkled on it and this is left to decay for more than a month and turned into manure and this is later sold in the markets.

As for fruit peels, the fresh ones are used to make washing powder and the decomposed ones to make toilet cleaners. The bio gas that is generated from the cattle waste is used as cooking gas and this will be used to cook at two canteens that will come up at Kathinaickenpalayam and Vadamadurai, says the panchayat president D.Ravi, who is the motivating force behind the model village.

With assistance from the members of Vallari women self help group led by R. Santhamani, the solid waste management has turned out to be a mega-success in the village.

“DRDA additional director T. Murugan has been assisting the panchayat in ensuring that the Integrated and Sustainable Solid and Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) is sustainable and two private companies are funding the cause”, says the panchayat president.

The PSG medical college campus has more than 1,200 trees belonging to more than 40 different species. This year’s theme on World Environment Day ‘7 Billion Dreams, One Planet, Consume with Care’ was emphasised to the students.

As the students enter the school, their first task is not to hang around and chat. They file into the classrooms, clean up the floor and water the plants on the campus. “We even put kolams in front of our classrooms,” says Class XII student, R.Geetha. On World Environment Day on Friday, the 600 boys and girls of the school took out a rally, holding placards and appealing to the people to use cloth bags instead of plastics.

“Our children keep the school campus clean and hygienic. They have planted 250 shade-giving trees like neem and gooseberry trees,” says the school principal, P.Kannammal.

The school has also put up two separate bins- one for bio-degradable trash and another for non-biodegradable garbage.

During summer, when there is a water scarcity, the children wash their hands around the trees so that they won’t go dry.

“We are really proud of our green campus. We are the envy of our neighbouring schools. Really, our school looks heavenly with so much greenery,” says Class X student, N.Aswini. If all the schools in Tamil Nadu emulate the Chithalandur government school, then Tamil Nadu’s future is safe, say the students.