Reporter’s Diary: What segregation when waste is dumped together?

CHENNAI: Chennai Mayor R Priya’s campaign to create awareness on segregating waste at source did not go as planned, as activists trolled her on social media.

Recently, Priya posted a couple of pictures on her official Twitter handle with two dustbins on her hand and posted that she segregates the waste at source. She had also invited people to join the campaign and to segregate the waste at home.

While many appreciated the campaign, activist as Jayaraman Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam questioned the process of separating waste, when the garbage truck mixes the waste and dumps them together at Pallikaranai marsh. He also questioned the status of infrastructure available for recycling 2,000 tonnes of degradable wastes and informed Priya that “empty marketing” strategies will not work in recycling waste.

Similarly, he also asked if the Mayor was ready to post the picture of waste segregation after it was mixed by the Corporation garbage trucks, for which there was no reaction from the office of Mayor.

Arappor Iyakkam and few other activists also joined the bandwagon and wondered on Twitter why garbage was dumped in an ecologically sensitive area like the Pallikaranai Marsh.

However, there were also some who appreciated the Chennai corporation and the Mayor for coming up with an awareness programme on source segregation and solid waste management.

— Yazhiniyan, Chennai