TidyCity » Meeting

A report called BIOTECH, Aneesh writes

City Cleaner — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:33:39 +0000

– by Aneesh R

Hey folks…..

I am pretty much sure that if I don’t post about our last meeting with the Biotech director, Chris is going to kick me outta Tidy city … I am already in her black list now for ‘I wont say’ reasons..

Okay, right to the point … The appointment was fixed for 12 .30 pm with Mr. Shaji, director of Biotech and by the time I reached the spot (a bit late ) Bindu and Piyush were there all ready for the meeting. After a brief introduction to the receptionist and waiting for about 5 minutes, we were called into the Director’s cabin. We took the seats offered to us and gave an introduction about Tidy city and our activities. I think, I should really thank Piyush for giving a vivid and detailed portrayal and thereby instilling some sense into the wayward description I was giving.

After an overview of our organization and events, we enquired about their area of expertise and the arenas in which they could co operate with us and thereby help us in enhancing our activities.

This is what we learned from Mr Shaji about Biotech
• It is a NGO working in the filed of innovative waste disposal techniques.
• They are approved and partly aided by Central Government.
• They have installed biogas digesters for managing food waste and other organic waste in many house holds and institutes.
• Have received many accolades both in the national and international level.

Now onto the Q and A session 

We put forward various problems faced by us on waste management, proper disposal and in the awareness front, during our cleaning and discussion sessions to Mr Shaji . He pointed out that the issues we are facing are not due to the lack of technology or brain but because of lack of interest and few takers for such technologies.

He proposed that the best way of creating awareness is to erect one such plant in one of our houses and thereby showing the neighbors and others, the advantages of it.

He also pointed out that the bio degradable waste generated in a nuclear family is enough to sustain a burner flame for 2 continuous hours a day.

Biotech make such plants and it will take only one square meter and can even be installed in terraces .No fear of pungent smell and a part of the expense will be bore by Central Government . The only catch we saw was the cost of one such unit for a house is about Rs 12,500 (Actual cost is 15k but 2500 Rs will be subsidized by the government).

We then asked about the feasibility of having such plants at public places like Museum and Kanakakunnu where the generation of bio waste is very low. His response was that there is lot of liquid waste generated in museum which is a useful energy source and that the output can be used to the light the lamps inside the Museum campus. he told us that the organization like ours can do a lot of good work in this arena in pressurizing government and promoting people to retort to such plants .

When we raised the concern of segregation required for implementing and functionalizing such a plant, he smilingly assured us that question of segregation wont raise at all if we do it at the base itself (say our home). To our question of Corporation mixing the waste even if we segregate and give it, he replied that it is our responsibility to make the Corporation change their way. He said that an organization like ours can compel them into collecting segregated wastes separately and that we should really look into it.

Another point he raised was that compared to Biotech ,we are in better position to make people understand the advantages and the importance of biogas plants .Since biotech is a NGO and the company implementing such plants, people would always be circumspect about their motives and hence sideline them as mere profit seekers .

He was not very ken in taking sessions but said that he would take one for us if we really want .All we have to do is to contact him in advance and then fix the date ,time and place. He was of the opinion that sessions and presentations wont make a difference and that only directly displaying the advantages of one such plant can make people think about it seriously.

I am darn sure that I have missed out on one too many points .So I request Bindu and Piyush to add on to this report
PS: I have Mr Shaji’s visiting card. People who want the number, just drop in a mail or ping me.

Adios folks.

A few guidelines from an NGO worker

City Cleaner — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:18:06 +0000

– by Rasika Ramesh

Sunday’s cleanup was a real eye-opener for two reasons.One,we got to know a lot of opinions regarding our sincere clean-up efforts.Two, an NGO worker , Shibu, added a whole new dimension to our clean-up objective.

The TidyCity members met at the Indian Coffee House entrance at 4:15pm to begin yet another day’s work of extensive clean-up.TidyCity badges and placards were put up and the cleanup started.The cleanup continued until 5:30pm After disposing the rubbish in the various dustbins allotted,all of us settled down for a session with an NGO worker, Shibu.This provided us some apocalyptic realizations regarding the problems concerned with solid waste management.

These are some facts weaned from the discussion.

– A major part of the discussion was devoted to plastic wastes and their efficient disposal.The lack of an efficient plastic recycling plant was highlighted .Also the plastic retrieved after recycling High Density Plastics are of Low Density and thus arent too useful.

– The waste management plant at Vilappilshala erected by Government happens to be running at a complete loss – a totally wasteful exercise running on high funding but without producing a fraction of the expected output.

– The plant at Vilappilshala has been erected within a poor man’s enclave – where the poorest of Trivandrum reside.The presence of this plant has grossly deteriorated the land value by infiltering hazardous poisons and chemicals into the soil there.This has also been the cause for a range of diseases in this area.

– Decentralized composting has been nearly banned due to the government’s requirement of a minimum generation of 300 tonnes of waste per day to run the plant.Unfortunately not even a 3rd of this amount has been generated which has resulted in extensive losses in running the plant.

– Also the increased levels of toxicity of the wastes generated is an important issue.The mixing up of all sorts of wastes such as vegetable wastes,plastics,polymers etc has made recycling futile.

– The increased use of CFLs has also created a major disposal problem.The presence of mercury in these energy saving lamps has made their efficient disposal difficult due to numerous health hazards posed by this metal.Moroever the companies selling these lamps lack a take-back-after-use option thus posing a huge environmental threat.

– Styrofoam plates and cups,straws,children’s toys and a host of other plastic items have been created from lethal plastics and polymers dumped in landfills.

– In some places landfills have been carelessly covered temporarily by plastic sheets which would ultimately leak to and infect the Karamana river which also happens to be a major source of drinking water for Trivandrum city.

– Instructions for burning of plastics have been printed on the back cover of notebooks for children even though its common knowledge that burning of plastices rerlease harmful and toxic chemicals.

– Also,large amount of wastes generated in Kerala have been dumped in nearby states which characterizes the typical NIMBY’s syndrome which is the “keep my backyard clean by dumping wastes in my neighbour’s yard” behaviour.

What can be done to tackle the problem at grass-root level?

Johnny Mnemonic trailer Batman & Robin trailer download Vanilla Sky movie

– Carry out public cleaning endeavours and public waste management awareness campaigns(street plays.etc).

– Report burning of plastics.

– Send in regular entries to the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column of various newspapers regarding the cause to effect government laws and public opinions.

– Start up composting activities at individual homes.Centralized composting doesnt work and almost always runs at a loss.Decentralized “lazy man’s composting” is the way to go.

– Separate the plastics from vegetable wastes.Give away the plastics to ragpickers.

– CFL lamps,bottles etc should necessarily be given back to the shops we bought them from.This move should be enforced through public support and government intervention.

– Production of Biogas from vegetable wastes obtained from vegetable markets(which was banned to meet the 300 tonne limit) must be renewed with vigour.

– Propose waste management plans and send the proposed plans to to the corporation ,village panchayats etc.

– EPR (Extended producer responsibility) must be effected by all companies.EPR refers to the obligation of the producer to the consumer to take back goods such as PET bottles,tubelights,CFL lamps,TVs etc.

Attendee list for Sunday activity

City Cleaner — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:01:15 +0000

This post is only for convenience. To keep a count of the attendees for the Sunday museum clean-up activity

Seraphim Falls divx

Billy Elliot divx Heavy Petting psp

download Halloween movie . In brief, there is a clean up activity happening at the Trivandrum Museum this Sunday, starting 4 p.m. Those who are interested may please leave a comment or send an email to mail@tidycity.org

The list will keep changing as more people may join us. Whats there at 2 p.m., Sunday will be the final list. After that, I dont suppose there will be time to check emails or blogs. So please leave your interest before that .
If anyone wants to join us and couldnt notify before that, please contact Srijith – 9895891445

The confirmed attendee list

1. Sreejith
2. Anoop John
3. Cris
4. Bindu
5. Hari
6. Meenakshi
7. Dilip
8. Anoop Sreeli
9. Muhammed Shakeeb
10. Biju T. O.
11. Vishnu J. R.
12. Anoop H.
13. Manu M.
14. Meenu G.
15. Sible Bhasi
16. Praveen Stanley Johnson
17. Aravind S K
18. Tarun
19. Vidya

The unconfirmed list

1. Nithin
2. Manu
3. Ashley
4. Anoop’s friends
5. Press club students

First meet up, actions planned

City Cleaner — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:21:10 +0000

We had a close to 2-hour meet up today. Only 5 could turn up. We met at an unidentifiable spot at the museum (unidentifiable because museum routes are always confusing).

Discussions were based on where we could start. We agreed that action was important. A list of some immediate things to do was drawn.

One of them is to do a weekly clean up drive. It had to be weekly since all of us could find an off only once a week. The coming Sunday, February 1st is the first day of action.

Conspiracy Theory divx

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the movie

The action is as simple as this – 4 or 5 of us picking up trash and cleaning the museum as best as we could. The use? We realize doing this on one Sunday is not going to clean the entire city or the museum for that matter. But action in any little form is important. This is one of the simplest ways you could start. If someone is picking after you, you are likely to turn up and take notice.

Many people, I believe, don’t think about it when they throw out trash on the roads. So one of the first steps is to make them do that. If they see someone actually bothering to pick up the things they threw aside, its bound to make them think for a moment. Even when many of us are sick of the garbage we live with, none of us actually realize we are contributing to it as well.

That’s step 1. Although its bound to invite a lot of criticism, curious questions and laughs, I believe small things could make a big difference. Whatever an ordinary individual like me can do, can be done by anyone else – each single person could make a difference by doing so little – that’s the message we are trying to drive across.

Step 2 is getting photographs. The same blog can be used for that. Anyone who sees a picture that could convey a strong message, is welcome to contribute it to the blog. Photographs make a lot more impact than words can. Just click a picture with your cell phone and send it across.

Step 3 is talking to a few people who have had experience in this area. I will post more details about this once I have made some calls.

Step 4 is seeking Government’s help and that cant be done without. But the first deal would be to encourage people to use the system which is already in place.

A few more were talked about. But those that can make an immediate effect came down to this list. Anyone who is interested in joining any of these activities and be a part of the cause is entirely welcome

Never Surrender trailer

Flashdance download

. Please just leave a comment.

Simply visualizing a clean city around you would be the biggest motivation you need. A clean city needn’t be defined as one that exists in other countries. We can bring it home.