Fighting our own battles: Diplomacy is a necessary skill for waste warriors

What can responsible citizens do when faced with civic authorities who largely do not function? Or function in fits and starts? When they can, they vote the municipal leaders out of power. Sometimes, they hold protests. And when pushed beyond endurance, they take matters into their own hands.

A growing number of enlightened professionals in Gurugram has done just that. Faced with sloppy and apathetic waste management by the authorities, 29 condominiums in the Millennium City have started disposing of their own garbage. Almost 10,000 households are part of the effort now.

In almost all the cases, the initial impetus came from an individual, which then found support in the community and the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA). Among the better known waste warriors of Gurugram are Monica Khanna Gulati in Nirvana Country who heads NCR Waste Matters, a Facebook page set up in 2015 to bring like-minded people on board, Keshav Jaini in Garden Estate, Veena Padmanabhan in Richmond Park, Smita Madhukar Ahuja in Summit, Ajay Nayyar in Vastu and Priya Mehrish in Regency Park 2. They, along with a host of others, have been leading the charge against ballooning landfills that threaten to poison the groundwater.

These waste evangelists have been educating their neighbours about the advantages of segregating household waste into dry and wet waste. The wet waste — mainly food and kitchen waste — can be easily composted, while dry waste — such as plastics, wood, metal and so on — can be recycled. The remaining stuff, that which cannot be degraded or recycled, is smaller and more manageable and this reduces the volume of waste finding its way into landfills. Thanks to the untiring efforts of these committed men and women, many of Gurugram’s condos now have their own composting units, which typically cost Rs 500,000-800,000 to set up.

But it hasn’t been easy getting people on board. Gurugram’s waste warriors say they face a tremendous amount of resistance from the word go. Recently, when some residents in a complex called Malibu approached their neighbours with the request to segregate their waste, some people attacked them, saying they were simply trying to make money out of the whole enterprise.

Even after people understand the advantages of sorting their waste, and realise that decomposing waste in landfills can create a toxic soup that can contaminate the groundwater, they do not always follow the rules. It’s tough to break old habits. Besides, many wonder whether making the effort to segregate their waste will be in vain. “A lot of people feel that they may make the effort, but eventually the municipality may not take the trouble to dispose of the garbage correctly… so why should they bother,” says Keshav Jaini, a resident of Garden Estate, which has been composting in-house waste since 2015.

Moreover, since the population at these building complexes tends to be highly mobile, the task of educating and convincing people is an ongoing process as there are always new entrants to be brought on board.

The team at Malibu Town  Photo: Sanjay K Sharma

 

The other hurdle that waste warriors face is that not everyone is ready to pay for the composting or the waste management service. So the challenge is not only to convince people about the benefits of the effort, but also to persuade them to loosen their purse strings for a worthy cause.

In short, being a waste warrior is no walk in the park. Those who lead the movement need to be part politician, part diplomat, and part patient and indefatigable warrior. Anyone who has lived in a large apartment complex knows that these places are hotbeds of politics. The selection of new presidents and RWA members is fiercely contested. And every time a new team takes charge, it tends to run down the decisions taken by the previous lot. In the process, a lot of good work often gets undone.

Diplomacy is a crucial skill necessary for waste warriors. They have to listen to oodles of unsolicited advice. The retired folk, the returned NRIs (who invariably know it all from their experiences overseas), former members of the armed forces (who always know how to do everything better than civilians) — everyone keeps up an unending stream of advice, which can test a waste warrior’s patience. “Everyone knows what needs to be done but nobody wants to do it,” says Gina Krishnan, a writer for this newspaper and a waste warrior in Malibu Town, one of the recent entrants to this ecologically sensitive club.

Of late, though, fear seems to be getting the better of apathy as citizens realise that they may soon drown under mountains of garbage. The Bhandwari landfill looms not far from many Gurugram’s complexes. No one wants a possible repeat of the Ghazipur landfill collapse which took place in 2017 and resulted in two deaths.

Where do the authorities stand on all this? Mostly, they content themselves with giving out contracts to waste management organisations that have a less than sterling record. They also attend meetings with citizen groups, where a lot is promised but little delivered.

Indeed, the list of initiatives the municipality of Gurugram could potentially take to control and manage urban waste could make up a slim volume. And the failures begin from the word go, with their inability to implement the laws for collecting and disposing of garbage as they currently stand.

But it’s not all bad news. Gurugram’s current Municipal Commissioner (MCG), Yashpal Yadav, is looking at ways to encourage composting by households and has even offered some financial support to residential complexes that are making the effort to manage their waste.

Clearly, Yadav has his work cut out for him. Padmanabhan, who, along with a few other like-minded residents, waged the battle for waste management in their condominium Richmond Park in 2014, says that many laws are already in place. What the MCG needs to do is ensure that they are implemented and complied with, she adds.

The MCG is also required to see that the total waste going to the landfills is reduced. It should ensure that citizens segregate waste and that it collects this segregated waste and disposes it of in the least harmful way. Also, it needs to monitor and pull up bulk waste generators (condominiums, hospitals, schools, malls, restaurants, office complexes), which are required by law to manage their own waste.

Besides fighting the battle in their own complexes, many of the warriors have been sharing their experiences with other RWAs, communities and schools. Khanna Gulati of NCR Waste Matters regularly visits both government and private schools to explain the benefits of waste segregation. Door-to-door awareness campaigns are on as well. In Malibu, Seema Vijayan has been giving demonstrations on easy pit-composting for houses on the ground floor. Rolly Jain, another member of the Malibu group, has been teaching residents how to compost using low-cost methods. Each time a resident is won over to the cause and starts doing his or her own composting, it’s a small victory for the waste warriors.

Gurugram’s waste evangelists have been winning many little battles. But the war is far from over.

Rubbish tips
 

Residents segregate waste into wet and dry. The segregated waste is collected by the private agency handling the waste. In many condominiums, a composting unit has been set up which deals with a substantial portion of the wet waste. The dry waste is collected by waste management firm EcoGreen, which is the current operator in Gurugram. Whatever is not recyclable or reusable is disposed of by them. Residents are required to pay a monthly fee for the service.