Mumbai residents join hands to make their ward waste-free

Mumbai city news: A workshop-cum-exhibition was held at Jamnabai Narsee School in Vile Parle on Sunday. Citizens were taught composting, segregating and recycling waste and also kitchen gardening.

At a time when the civic body sent notices and issued deadlines for societies in Mumbai to segregate and compost their waste, residents in Juhu are aiming for a waste-free ward.Residents have come together to make the area cleaner.

Corporator Renu Hansraj launches the project on Sunday. (HT)

A workshop-cum-exhibition was held at Jamnabai Narsee School in Vile Parle on Sunday. Citizens were taught composting, segregating and recycling waste and also kitchen gardening.

Juhu Citizens’ Welfare Group (JCWG), with the ward office and corporator Renu Hansraj, launched the zeo-garbage initiative on Sunday. By July 15, Juhu will install two to three organic waste converters that will each turn one ton of wet waste into compost.

Under an initiative called Forward 69, ward 69 residents will try to reduce the amount of waste going to the dumping grounds and compost it themselves. The initiative comes after residents of other parts of Mumbai, like Pali Hill, started their own zero-waste projects.

Zahida Banatwala, JCWG secretary, said, “We need people to help take the load off the municipal corporation.”

The corporation, in its drive to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfills, issued an order a week ago for citizens to not only start segregating wet waste, but also compost it in their societies by October.

Hansraj will distribute recycled cloth bags to citizens. “We will later push the project to all of entire Andheri (W),” said Hansraj.

MLA Amit Satam, a supporter of the Forward 69 campaign, said, “We want to start processing green waste in the ward itself so that it does not go to the dumping ground.” He added that the converters will be at Juhu-Versova Link road and Manish Nagar in Andheri (W).

According to Prashant Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner, the campaign is a first of its kind in K (west) ward. “There will be a similar event for the whole of Andheri (W) this month where different agencies of waste management will be showcasing their tools and methods,” he added.