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One of our main work is on waste and it started with our understanding on Persistent Organic Pollutants -
specifically two chemical families - Dioxins and Furans - and one of their major source - Incinerators.
We were involved in a struggle against the installation of waste incinerators in our State, especially for burning municipal
waste in Tourist Destinations. We
also joined in the struggle by the local population against incineration in an industrial establishment (Eloor) and often
near municipal dumpsites. Incineration and Burning as Dioxin sources, and the sudden spurt of Incinerator companies offering solutions in the
State got us on our feet. This was in 1999. Along with Greenpeace and Equations, we went public and alerted the media, people and the State on
the issue. This campaign gained much success as we could get the State Government to officially dissociate from incinerators as
a waste management option.
The Zero Waste Kovalam programme,
an offshoot of this struggle against incinerators was thus launched. At the Waste
Not Asia groupings this was mooted as an attempt towards showcasing that a world without waste is possible.
Zero Waste Kovalam
The Zero Waste Kovalam work started in 1999. This is a multi-stake holder programme based on the philosophy of Zero Waste
and is growing into a model for handling the waste with a better political and social understanding. The Zerowaste Kovalam has come a long way since then, with support
pouring from all the Stakeholders but most importantly the Government and the local Hotel Industry. This is now becoming a
model for handling the waste with a better political and social understanding. The Government of Kerala has adopted the Zero
Waste goal for its "Clean Kerala Mission" (2004) and the project has also won the countries best eco-friendly project award
in 2004.
As part of the programme, we have established the Zero Waste Centre, a Resources design, development
and training centre to support the Materials Substitution and Community Awareness Programmes.
Click to go to Zero Waste Kovalam website
Bio-medical Waste management
Kerala is a State with the highest hospital density in the country and these hospitals are poor examples of health care
centres. This is due to the abysmally bad waste management and the government proposal was to enforce installation of incinerators.
Rajasree V V, a researcher, carried
out the first survey of the hospitals and waste management in them, which revealed
gross violation of the biomedical rules and current practices. The attempts of the incinerator companies to make profits
and create large-scale health hazard was exposed by Thanal. With this background Thanal has been actively campaigning for
non-burn waste management facilities to handle bio-medical waste. Over the last three years we have seen considerable change
in the scenario. The Kerala State Pollution
Control Board (KSPCB), has after much persuasion, stopped the installation of individual on-site incinerators in hospitals. But much work needs to continue in this area, as the threat of Incinerators and other
burning options continue to haunt hospitals in the State.
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