Converting waste into wealth

Sir,
This has reference to the writeup’Converting village waste into wealth'(DE, Jan, 2019).The writer has beautifully explained the concept of turning the rural waste (leaves, clothes etc) into compost which can gainfully be used as manure for plants in the kitchen gardens and elsewhere.There is no doubt that a large amount of waste is produced naturally and as a result of human activities in our homes and elsewhere.If left in the open or burnt, it may rot and produce poisonous gases leading to air pollution.Thus, there is need to dispose this waste in an ecofriendly manner and convert it into manure by slow decomposition.The writer has referred to various workshops and trainings organised by Rural Development Department/Rural Sanitation to aware the officers and officials about the process of converting fallen leaves, peels/parts of fruits/vegetables etc into ecompost.Similarly waste and wornout clothes form a large amount of waste in every household.The leftover cloth can be recycled and used to make carrybags or shredded and used in mattresses and pillows.
In fact, in the olden days, people used to make cloth mattresses and pillows by using the worn out clothes.But as the living standard of people improved and cloth mattresses were replaced by modern mattresses in majority of the households, thus giving rise to a large bulk of waste cloth.Instead of throwing the used and torn quilts, matteresses, pillows etc to water bodies and choking them or burning them, it is advisable to recycle them.What is required is creation of awareness about the need and technique of the safe and profitable disposal of these things.For this purpose, it is imperative that awareness camps are organised at the Panchayat level and people made aware of the need of safe disposal of the wastes into useful products.Already there are people who convert waste clothes into mats and carpets.The expertise of such people can be used to train and motivate other people to use torn cloth as mats, bags etc.Such an activity will help in checking environmental pollution on one hand and prove to be a source of income for the unemployed people on the other.
Ashok Sharma,
Udhampur.56

Follow our WhatsApp channel