How to effectively segregate waste in our households?

It’s important to accurately identify the type of waste created in order to properly segregate it. According to their biological, physical, and chemical characteristics, waste is identified and categorized into the following groups for the purpose of waste segregation:

• Dry Waste: It refers to all the goods that aren’t considered dirty or moist. Both recyclable and non-recyclable goods fall under this category. Bottles, cans, textiles, plastic, wood, glass, metals, and paper are some common examples.
• Wet Waste: It refers to all organic materials, including food, soiled food packaging, hygiene products, yard waste, tissues, and paper towels, as well as any other soiled material that could contaminate recyclables.
• Sanitary Waste: It refers to all the waste (liquid or solid) that comes from human activity. It may also contain waste from the medical industry
• Hazardous household waste: It refers to all household products that contain corrosive, poisonous, ignitable, or reactive chemicals excluding used oil.
• E-waste: It refers to all types of electronic trash.
• Hazardous Waste: It refers to all objects that have corrosive, poisonous, ignitable, or reactive chemicals in them.
• Inert Waste: It refers to waste materials that are difficult to decompose and are neither chemically nor biologically reactive.

If we talk about the significance of waste segregation, it is necessary because some wastes can be dangerous and have the potential to spread illness, harm water sources, contaminate land, and can degrade the environment. Waste that is not separated may become polluted if it is kept with other forms of waste. Such material cannot be handled or treated, thus it usually ends up in landfills or local dump yards. Waste segregation makes it possible to handle various waste types. This contributes to less rubbish being disposed of in landfills or dump yards. Therefore, waste segregation is important for a sustainable environment and living.

The government’s cleanliness mission launched on October 1, 2021, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM-U) 2.0 has a five-year goal of reaching garbage-free status for all cities through 100% source segregation, door-to-door collection, and scientific management of all fractions.

Some waste management actions that can be taken by us are as follows:

• Prevention: Avoiding the creation of trash in the first place is the best strategy to manage it. This entails cutting back on consumption, repurposing goods, and forming sustainable shopping habits.
• Reuse: Reusable items should take precedence over single-use substitutes. To increase the lifespan of objects like bags, containers, and furniture, we should promote reuse.
• Recycling: Paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic are among the materials that can frequently be recycled to create new goods. To make sure that they are processed properly we should separate recyclables from other types of waste.
• Recovery: For non-recyclable garbage, energy recovery techniques like waste-to-energy incineration can be used to produce energy while minimizing environmental effects.
• Disposal: The last option for disposing of waste that cannot be avoided, reused, recycled, or recovered should be a landfill.

For efficient waste management, a system of waste segregation must be established in our houses and localities. Some are:

• Colored Bins: Use different containers for different types of waste, such as blue containers for dry waste, green containers for wet waste, red containers for sanitary waste, grey containers for e-waste, and black containers for hazardous waste. Proper color coding makes waste segregation easy.
• Proper Signage: Bins should be marked with concise, educational labeling that details what should go in each container. To make sure that everyone is aware of the segregation regulations, provide text and graphics.
• Education and Awareness: To inform people of the value of waste segregation and the proper way to do it, we can conduct workshops, seminars, and awareness campaigns.