An innovative project at Rahuri — ‘Study Tour’ of students at Waste Processing Plant

Rahuri City has made remarkable achievements in waste management. In Swachh Survekshan 2022, it was ranked 14th in the country and 12th in the state. Notably, it also obtained GFC 3-star rating and ODF++ rating.

It all started with the establishment of a waste processing center which is credited to the valuable contribution and efforts of Hon. Former MP Prasad Tanpure, Former Mayor Dr. Ushatai Tanpure, and Chief Officer, Dr. Sachin Bangar. Rahuri city generates 14 tonnes of solid waste every day which was earlier dumped in mixed form. As a result, huge piles of garbage were accumulating, causing health problems for the nearby residents. There were also frequent incidents of garbage fires posing serious risks to the people.

To address this issue, Chief Officer, Dr. Sachin Bangar has ensured scientific processing of waste through its state-of-the-art processing center. To achieve this, segregated waste collection was central, and, therefore, city-wide public awareness campaigns have been taken up. On this front, Social Lab Environmental Solutions Private Limited, a waste management consultant company, has been associated with Rahuri Municipal Council as the implementation partner. As a result of the IEC activities implemented in the city, it has been successful in achieving segregated waste collection and elimination of waste dumps (garbage vulnerable points). It has helped to transform the waste processing center into a clean and beautiful place.

To demonstrate this successful model, a ‘Study Tour’ was organized at the waste processing center covering all the schools of Rahuri Nagar Parishad Shikshan Mandal. It aimed to build awareness and capacity building among the students about solid waste management. In this program, the students received guidance from former mayor Dr. Ushatai Tanpure and Chief Officer Dr. Sachin Bangar.

The program received enthusiastic response from all the stakeholders as given below.

• Students: 944 Students from 13 schools
• Municipality: Chief Officer and other staff (total 20)
• People’s Representatives: Former MP Shri Prasad Tanpure, Former Mayor Dr. Ushatai Tanpure, Corporators: 05
• Educational staff: Educational Officer, Principles, Teachers, and non-teaching staff (30)
• Staff at Processing Plant: 15
• Social Lab Team: 13
• Other citizens present: 25

Activities implemented under the Program

Various activities were conducted during the program including training session, visit to processing center, conducting games, prize distribution, street play and citizen feedback. These activities are described in detail below.

• Training session and visit to processing center

At the inauguration, Chief Officer, Dr. Sachin Bangar gave detailed information to the present students about the operations of waste processing plant. Thereafter, honorable former MP Shri Prasad Tanpure addressed the students and highlighted the importance of cleanliness, environmental conservation and health. He urged the students to use toilets, plant trees, use organic fertilizers and avoid using plastic items, bags and containers.

Afterward, Chief Officer, Dr. Sachin Bangar, guided the students on a visit to the processing plant, and displayed the methods of wet and dry waste processing. In this, the method of composting for wet waste processing, dry waste sorting and plastic baling through a baling machine and mode of selling recyclable plastic were demonstrated.

Citing the importance of waste segregation, the students were advocated to segregate the waste as wet, dry, sanitary waste and domestic hazardous waste and dispose off only to the collection vehicles. The Chief Officer also answered the questions asked by the present students.

• Games for Capacity building and prize distribution

To inculcate the knowledge about waste management among the students, interactive games were conducted such as snake ladder of waste segregation, musical chair, up-down, jalebi-samosa-dosa game etc. The winning students were felicitated with prizes by the dignatories to motivate them.

• Street Play

In additions to games, street play was also performed to create awareness about solid waste management. In this, special emphasis was imparted on waste segregation and conservation of public property. Social Lab team made a major contribution for this event.

• Citizen Feedback

At the end of the program, feedback was taken from the present citizens to assess their problems, level of satisfaction and proposed solution for improvement.

Outcomes of the Program

The innovative initiative implemented by Rahuri Municipal Council proved to be very effective in terms of awareness creation and capacity building. The students understood how the municipal council processes the daily waste collected from the city. Also, they could gather first hand experience of the operations of the processing plant and realized the importance of waste segregation.

This study tour became successful with the cooperation of the municipality officials, Waste processing plant Manager, Shri Dattatray Jadhav and Social Lab team.

Author — Dr. Sachin Bangar, Chief Officer, Rahuri Municipal Council