Despite living in landscaped gated communities, the streets beyond our gates often tell a different story—littered with trash and overflowing garbage. There’s no escaping the reality: our cities are drowning in waste. These unmanaged garbage dumps not only attract disease and strays but also foster a sense of indifference. While not all of this waste is directly our doing, it’s time to take responsibility and explore how we can reduce, re-channel, and manage the waste we generate.

 

Why Adopt Zero-Waste Practices at the Community Level?

A housing society, as a microcosm of urban life, presents an ideal starting point for effective waste management. It fosters a collective approach—”we are in this together”—which is often more impactful than trying to change individual behaviors. The cumulative effect of a well-managed community is far greater than that of a single household.

Implementing decentralized waste management at the community level significantly cuts down on fuel emissions by minimizing the need for long-distance waste transportation. Emissions associated with waste disposal including landfill emissions accounted for 5% of global emissions in 20161. If no improvements are made, the emissions are set to nearly double by 2050!

By segregating and managing waste at its source, we not only contribute to lower emissions, but also better resource management. We can more easily identify materials for recovery, reuse, and repurposing, before moving towards recycling. In some cases, bulk waste generators (> 100kg waste a day) are able to identify and reduce their biggest waste sources.

So, let’s explore how a housing society can take the first steps towards better waste management practices.

 

The Starting Point: Segregation

“When you mix it, you can’t fix it,” is an anonymous yet highly relevant saying when it comes to waste management. To prevent mixing different types of waste in one bin (commonly known as a dustbin or wastebasket), two key steps must be followed:

 

A for Awareness about Segregation and B for Bins that Facilitate Segregation.

The three-way segregation system, outlined by SWMRT after the Solid Waste Management 20162 directive—Wet, Dry, and Reject—works excellently for beginners. At the household level, this system is simple and effective, ensuring residents don’t have to memorize too many categories. Wet waste includes organic materials from the kitchen—leftover food, peels, food scraps, and garden waste. Dry waste consists of materials like plastic, paper, glass, metal, e-waste, and textiles. Reject waste includes sanitary and medical waste.

Raising awareness is crucial, as residents often have many questions. For instance: “Does coconut shell go in wet waste?” (No, it goes in dry waste). “Can we put cooked food or pizza in wet waste?” (Mostly, yes). “Will the wet waste bin smell?” (No). A waste management consultant can be very helpful in addressing these questions.

To ensure segregation happens seamlessly, set up a straightforward process. Provide each household with a green bin (for wet waste), a bag (for dry waste), and a red bin (for reject waste). Distribute a clear Do’s and Don’ts list to guide residents on how to properly segregate their waste into these categories.

 

Closing the Loop

When wet waste ends up in landfills, it undergoes anaerobic decomposition, releasing methane—a potent greenhouse gas. Meanwhile, perfectly recyclable materials like paper, plastic, glass, and metal end up polluting groundwater and air, while being rendered useless. Hence, mixed waste intensifies the problem of global warming.

To handle wet waste, engage a waste management consultant to set up a composting unit. Since over 60% of household waste is organic, this one step—composting—helps tackle the majority of a community’s waste.

 

Clean dry waste can be handed over to local recyclers (such as raddiwalas or informal waste pickers), or organizations that collect various types of dry waste. Local sustainability influencers or waste consultants can help you identify recyclers in your area. Finally, only reject waste should be handed over to the local municipality, which usually incinerates it. But by that point, your community will have reduced over 80% of the waste that would have otherwise been sent to the municipality.