Dinesh Kamath's news 'Survey relating to garbage carried out' that was published in Newsband

Survey relating to garbage carried out

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The environment department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation had few days back conducted a survey to find out exactly the nature of garbage that are dumped on the road or in the bin by the residents of Navi Mumbai. The survey revealed some interesting facts.

A big quantity of trash was found thrown at various places in Navi Mumbai. These trash consisted of plenty of plastic bags thus proving that the residents of the city are not paying heed to the warning relating to dangers posed by plastic bags scattered here and there.

At places where temples exist it was found that coconut shells are scattered here and there. Wet, organic wastes are also found daily in the garbage at many places. At the market places, one can find fruit and vegetable wastes thrown all around.

The common contents of the garbage all over the city are the vegetarian and non-vegetarian food wastes. These are found dumped in huge quantity especially in slum areas.  

More rag pickers were found particularly at those places where garbage is dumped in huge quantity since here they are able to make profitable business. These rag pickers make a living by dumping in their bags the useful materials they find hidden in the garbage. They then sell these useful materials at the right places where they get the deserving price for those stuffs. Thus if garbage is a menace for the residents, they are a source of livelihood for these rag pickers who depend on these garbage to earn their daily bread.

There are organizations which take pride in giving boost to the business of these rag pickers by taking the help of the civic body to give access to the rag pickers at the sites where garbage are dumped in larger quantity. These rag pickers then get an opportunity to eke out their living and at the same time help the civic body to dispose of the waste.

An official of the civic body expressed concern over the huge number of plastic bags that is being disposed of at certain places where licenced street vendors exist in big number. These vendors continue the practice of littering the plastic bags all over the footpaths and roads. This way, they are misusing their licences, said the official. The civic body does carry out drives against these vendors who misuse their licences but the problem still remains unsolved.  

Another interesting find of this survey was that at places where intellectuals reside there is a huge quantity of paper waste scattered all over. This is owing to the fact that intellectuals mostly engage themselves in paper and pen work. Also they do a lot of reading owing to which newspapers are found scattered all around in the areas where they reside.  

The places where infrastructure works are being carried out, it is found that debris are dumped in huge quantity at these places and this causes an headache for the civic body.

Thus these are the interesting finds of the survey carried out by environment department which has succeeded in analyzing the nature and quantity of garbage dumped at various places in the city. This kind of survey is bound to help the civic body to come up with right methods to tackle the garbage related problems that exist in the city.