Students sensitised on waste segregation in Salem

As part of the ‘People’s Movement for Clean Cities’ campaign, government school students were explained the importance of waste segregation and functioning of micro composting centres in Corporation limits on Wednesday.

The campaign was launched by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in Chennai last month that stresses people’s role, responsibility and contributions in keeping the city clean. Various thematic activities were being carried out including sensitisation of source segregation of waste and mass cleaning.

At the Collectorate, Collector S. Karmegam in the presence of Mayor A. Ramachandran and Corporation Commissioner T. Christuraj administered an oath to the students to keep the city clean under the ‘My Waste, My Responsibility’ tag.

Later, as part of the activity Thuimai Sutrula (cleanliness tourism), 25 students each from four government boys and girls secondary schools in four zones inspected segregation of waste at door steps. They were explained the importance of segregation and asked to implement the same in their houses. Later, they were taken to micro compost centres and the process involved in converting vegetable waste into fertilizers was explained.

The Mayor told the students that there are 2,38,624 households in the city with a population of 9.60 lakh and a total of 550 tonnes of solid waste is being generated every day. Of the total waste, 319 tonnes of waste were biodegradable which were taken to 28 centres and converted as fertilizers, he added. The Collector told the students that there are three centres in municipalities, 24 centres in town panchayats and 20 in village panchayats where the collected waste is converted.