Do you have two dustbins at your home?

Yes. This is indeed a very pertinent question. Why?

Read on..

All of us have dustbins at our homes. Throughout the day we dump trash - plastic, metal, paper, vegetable peels, food leftovers, dust and the like. What happens after you dump your trash? Have you given a thought about it? Every morning, you keep your trash can outside and the trash collector comes, takes yours in his big bin and moves them to a still larger trash can.

(image source: www.technocrazed.com)

Then a smaller trash van comes and takes it to a larger trash van. Finally, this trash is then dumped to landfills / dumpsites at the outskirts of the city. Basically it is dumped onto the ground. In most cases it is burnt, leaving rise to toxic fumes in the air. Further, when new garbage is collected, it again gets dumped on top of the old garbage. There is no solid waste management plan that is consistently followed. Hence what happens is that all garbage gets mixed and dumped together - solid, semi solid, liquid, perishable, non-perishable etc. 

However, there are recycling units which employ persons to segregate the plastic / metal from the trash, which is recycled. But very little of the trash is recycled because of the arduous task of segregating the perishable and non-perishable trash. Further, where can you find persons to work at these dumpsites? Generally, it is the poor street urchins who do this job. Imagine urchins toiling for hours amidst the toxic fumes looking for cola cans and water bottles among piles and piles of stench-filled trash!

Do we give a thought as to what this could cause to the environment - land, water and air? What is the easiest thing that we can co to help ameliorate the situation? Simple. Segregate the waste. For over seven years now, I have been doing this and have made my family members also do this.

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I have two trash cans at home - one green in color and another of a varied color. I throw the perishable waste in the green trash can and the non-perishable waste in the other trash can. The frequency of sending the cans outside for collection reduces. 

Solid non-perishable waste like plastic, metal etc. is retained for a longer period at home in the closed trash can if it does not emit any bad smell whereas the perishable waste is sent out at shorter intervals depending on what I dump. Sometimes, the non-perishable waste gets collected for even 10 days at a stretch if it does not emit any bad odour / stench. For example, an empty plastic / aluminum foil cover that contained chips / biscuits can be retained for a longer period than an aluminum cover that had a ready-to-eat food product, which has to be disposed immediately. 

The moot point is even if you want to dispose it at more frequent intervals, you can segregate and dispose perishable and non-perishable trash.

Once the trash collection person comes, you can tell him which is perishable trash and which is not. Generally, for identification purpose, the non-perishable trash can which he has is red in colour and the perishable trash can is green in colour. This ensures effective solid waste management in a better manner.

This is a simple switch which we all can make. Will you?