Children form ‘green army’, work towards a zero waste society

MUMBAI: In pursuit of a green future, 30 environmentally-conscious children from a residential complex in Goregaon convinced society members to adopt a host of measures

MUMBAI: In pursuit of a green future, 30 environmentally-conscious children from a residential complex in Goregaon convinced society members to adopt a host of measures to reduce their waste. As a result, the society sends little waste to the city’s dumping grounds, saves rainwater and treats its own sewage.

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Aged between five and 15, this young bunch that call themselves the ‘Green Army’, stay in Mahindra Eminente, a four-building complex that houses 250 flats in Goregaon (West).

Impressed, the society members decided to invest in adopting measures such as three-bin segregation of waste, composting, recycling and holding eco-friendly drives during festivals. “We realised that if the people around us don’t take care of the environment, we won’t have much of a world to inherit. Hence we thought we should take over and convince our parents of the need to adopt eco-friendly habits,” said Jiya Gala, 13.

“We are taught green practices in school by our teachers but we see that people around us don’t follow them. We want to set an example for others through our actions,” said Trusha Sohoni, 11.

Kedar Sohoni, resident and architect of the green movement trained 30 volunteers of different age groups, including adults and senior citizens about waste segregation and composting practices. “The idea was to select people from every building so the dissemination of information was much faster. After surveying societies with similar projects, we decided to start ours in November 2015,” he said.

Waste is segregated into three categories. Organic waste amounts to 140-kg, the dry waste 20kg and the reject (biomedical waste) 5kg daily. Organic waste is converted into manure at eight compost drums. Dry waste is given to a private NGO for recycling and the biomedical waste is separately collected and disposed of by the civic body.

“Since the beginning of the project, we have managed to stop 4,500-kg of waste from being taken to the city’s dumping grounds,” said Arif Siddiqui, chairman of the society. “The manure generated is used in our gardens and the excess is given to residents to use at home.”

The society reuses 75 lakh litres of water a year by recharging groundwater through rainwater harvesting.