Nayagarh: Thirteen villages in Odisha’s Nayagarh district are reaping the gains of a clean environment, organic manure, and income from waste.
Two waste sorting centers established at Kantabania and Mankapalli villages in Nayagarh sort waste from 2688 households. The Kantabania Centre sorts waste from Biridihi, Kusumitara, Subalaya villages, while the Mankapali center sorts waste from Tulasipur, Similisahi, Bhutadihi, Bhadikila, Ikiri, Udayapur, Padmadeipur and Bhatasahi.
Over a period of four months, the villagers were trained about waste management through various awareness programmes conducted by Gram Vikas with members of the Village Development Committees and self-help groups and community leaders.
The waste management initiative is supported by HDFC Parivartan under the Holistic Rural Development Project (HRDP) programme.
They were taught to identify biodegradable, non-bio-degradable waste, recyclable and hazardous waste and were trained segregate wastes at the household level and composting biodegradable waste such as leftover food, kitchen waste like vegetable peels and other natural wastes in a pit.
Waste management committees were also formed with representatives from each village overseeing the household level efforts. Each household gets two bags for dry waste. There is a system for household level waste collection and transport to the sorting centers.
Gobinda Majhi, a member of the Waste Management Committee and Kantabania Village Development Committee, says, “ The residents in all the 13 villages are now aware and have learnt about segregating plastic waste. The mini truck or pickup auto moves around the village to collect waste from every house. We are no longer at the risk of terrible health hazards from burning the waste.”
The sorting centers earn from selling the collected waste. “Staff at the center sort out the dry solid waste separately for selling. The activity looks sustainable considering we earned ₹2800 by selling waste like plastic, bottles, paper, cardboard boxes, cosmetic containers, tins and glasses the first time itself,” said Majhi.
Abhimanyu Nayak, a resident of Kantabania and a member of his village committee, feels the sorting center has given him an opportunity to earn. “Due to physical disability I cannot walk properly. I could not take up any daily wage labour in the village. At the sorting center, I sit all day and segregate the waste after the mini truck dumps the waste. It helps me earn a daily wage of ₹300,” said Nayak.