What is waste segregation? Waste segregation refers to the separation of wet waste and dry waste. The purpose is to recycle dry waste easily and to use wet waste as compost.

Why should we segregate waste? When we segregate waste, the amount of waste that gets landfilled reduces considerably, resulting in lower levels of air and water pollution. Segregating waste also makes it easier to apply different processes to the waste, like composting, recycling and incineration.

Here are some steps to manage and segregate waste:

1. Keep separate containers for dry and wet waste in the kitchen.

2. Keep two bags for dry waste collection- paper and plastic, for the rest of the household waste

3. Keep plastic from the kitchen clean and dry and drop into the dry waste bin. Keep glass/plastic containers rinsed of food matter.

4. Send wet waste out of your home daily. Store and send dry waste out of the home, once a week.

5. Keep a paper bag for throwing the sanitary waste.

There is also a need to practice waste management and segregation as a community, and the best way to practice waste management is to form a group of like-minded people. The process of waste segregation should be thoroughly explained to family/neighbours in your apartment building or neighbourhood. Create awareness amongst the staff in the apartment building/neighbourhood to help make the process easier. Acquiring separate storage drums for storing the dry waste and wet waste will be a great way to store bulk waste. Contact the local scrap dealer to collect the dry waste.

Segregation of waste in universities and town:

There is no concept of segregation of waste in our universities and colleges, where we throw all types of waste together. We are unaware of the side effects of this action, which can be very harmful for our health. We collectively need to develop the habit to throw all waste things into baskets which are especially made for this purpose.

Waste Separation Process–How to Segregate Waste:

At first, you will need a large area for installation of the waste segregation machine. The minimum area of this machine is about 5400. When you get all the facilities in the workshop, garbage truck and manpower ready, you can start to segregate your waste.

1. All the wastes are transported into the workshop and unloaded onto the plate feeder. The feeder feeds them onto the uniform materials spreader which can spread the wastes uniformly on the conveyor belt.

2.Belt conveyor transits the wastes to manual sorting platform. Workers will pick out large pieces of trash, such as quilt, big wood branches and hazard waste out.

3. Then the rest of the waste will go to rotatory screening machine. Plastic bags will be broken by a bag breaker before they going to the screening machine. The rotatory screening machine screens the wastes through bores with a diameter of 50 mm, therefore it can screen oversized materials and undersized waste.

4. Undersized organic wastes (diameter<50 mm) are mostly organics. They will firstly be sent to a magnetic separator to get metal out and then be collected and packed. This organic waste is usually used as fertilizer in agriculture.

5. Oversized materials (diameter>50mm) will also go to the magnetic separation machine. Metal materials, like iron cans or tins will be separated out. The rest of the oversized materials will be sent to comprehensive winnowing machine. The machine can pick light plastic wastes, heavy materials and other wastes out clearly.

6. Light plastic waste will be sent to manual sorting platform again because there will still be impurities in it. Finally, the plastic waste will be packed by a packing machine. Heavy materials like hard plastic waste, fabrics, rubber products and large organic wastes will also be packed and then be sent for further processing.

IHTISHAM AHSAN (UCP),

Lahore, January 26.