Basic Segregation of Household Waste (Of course Practically Doable!!)

Did you ever come across few astonishing facts about waste management such as:

1) The chips packet that you dumped in your dry waste bin may have to travel more that 800 km to get recycled or rather incinerated in a cement furnace kiln!! OR

2) Many of the cosmetic helpers serve around you hold graduation degree and sometimes masters too!!OR

3) The Glass which is claimed as recyclable infinitely, a few types of it like in tube lights and bulbs, does not get recycled even once due to lack of specific recycling facility set up and end up in landfills!!

If you look around for the some such general inputs, I am sure you will get a real good shock. 

The facts about waste had always been astonishing for me since I started taking interest. Depending on where you stay, in a metro city or in an interior tribal village, there is vast difference throughout India in basic waste management and recycling facilities available around.

Generally, theoretically there are many categories and subcategories of waste from recycling point of view like different categories of hard/soft/clear/non clear plastic, multilayer packaging, tetra packs, categories of  glass based on thickness, paper categories, wood and many more... the list seems endless.   

After a lot of trial and error, understanding various available infrastructure for managing waste, keeping in mind people's behavior and willingness to segregate here are simple guidelines, I could workout. And I am quite sure this is the very basic waste segregation anyone can and must do.

Disclaimer: This is a very basic general overview to help understand the topic. Please follow guidelines issued by your local waste managing authorities about waste segregation. 

1. Wet Waste: items that are nature made AND either we eat or domestic animals can eat is called wet waste. 

Wet waste is either composted to get manure or processed in bio gas plant. Generally it takes around 3-4 weeks to turn your wet waste into manure. All food waste, fruit and vegetable peels, meat, fish, egg, flowers, leaves and twigs are called wet waste.

Though food remains like egg shell, coconut shell and other hard shells, hard seeds, non-veg items waste etc. are wet waste too, but  a few of them is being collected into dry waste, mainly because of two reasons: 1) hard items damage the mixer blades of the compost plant 2) its decomposition time is much more than other wet waste. You may check with your sweeper and segregate these items accordingly. 

I use small bin and do not use plastic liners for wet waste. 

How to happily manage without plastic dustbin liners

2. Dry waste: 

All manmade items that can get recycled are dry waste. Mainly hard plastic, Soft plastic, paper, glass, metal, wood, cardboard, leather, rubber, polythene, cloth, thermocol, tetrapacks etc.. 

Generally all these material are sorted into many subcategories and sent to separate recycling facilities once gathered in  bulk vehicle load.  For eg. empty milk pouches have to stay for more than a week at sorting facility.  When it gets accumulated in large quantity, to optimize on transport cost, it is sent to recycler. 

I manage to put cleaned, rinsed and dried food packaging in this dry waste it helps to keep our open storage and segregation areas  odor free and hygienic and help fast segregation. 

3. E waste: 

The way we consider🐍snake, consider E waste in same way.

This waste consist of all your electronic gadgets like Mobile, TV, fridge, washing machine, AC, computer, laptop any small or big household equipment that run on electricity, batteries, lighting equipment, wires and cables, chargers, electronic toys and sports equipment etc.. 

All electrical and electronics items waste is very hazardous and toxic in nature. It has great potential to pollute environment (land, water, air and food) to a great extent if not recycled scientifically.  Central pollution control board has authorized E waste recyclers in each state. You MUST send your E waste to your nearest authorized E waste recycling facility. If no such facility is around, you MUST work out this with local authorities.  

4. Hazardous Waste:

All your biomedical waste, sharp objects, colors and chemicals, expired medicines and cosmetics that can lead to hazards, injuries, fall in this category. 

Any waste soiled with any kind of body fluid is called Biomedical waste.  (diapers, sanitary pads, bandages, syringes, family planning tools, toilet paper, waxing strips etc.) CORONA waste is hazardous too. Masks, PPE kits, all waste items discarded by corona patient. 

Broken glass, sharp objects like nails, razor blades, needles, broken thermometer, and other such waste is also hazardous.

Wrap in newspaper/Pack in used plastic bag/bottle/cardboard box  such that it does not leak or harm anyone. Put a big visible RED cross mark ❌with red sketch pen. Handover this packet separately or put this into dry waste bin so that the waste handing people know its hazardous waste and need not open to see what the packet contains. Your little efforts will save lot many people not only from injuries but also help them do cleaner job.  

(I keep all boxed food packaging waste folded at a place and keep RED sketch pen along. I use this to pack hazardous waste. This is very handy arrangement. You may also do such arrangement at your home so segregation will become very easy, effortless and part of your routine. You may keep a bottle and collect syringes/needles if its a regular waste from your home. Dispose this periodically as mentioned)    

5. Reject Waste ( Dirty waste)

All the other waste apart from mentioned above is mostly dirty. Like sweeping dust, cobwebs, filter dust from various machines at home, (vacuum cleaner, washing machine, fan, ac etc.) bathroom drain waste, died cockroaches, lizards etc. insects, hair etc. All these if mixed with other waste will make the whole recyclable waste dirty. So I keep a separate bin only for this dirty waste and put a used paper/ plastic as liner. Once this bin is filled I handover the dirty waste bag to sweeper in tied condition. I recommend this strongly as the water needed to clean the waste before recycling will be reduced drastically, if all people keep and handover the dirty waste separately.

When all the household waste is segregated like this, it is very likely that the mixed waste which ends up in landfill will be reduced drastically. And we will definately achieve Zero Waste India and a better environment to generation next. 👦👧.