No such thing as ‘away’ – Zero Waste volunteers learn in Gangtok

Guilty!! Angry!!! Shocked!! Remorseful!!! 

These were some of the words that captured the reactions of students from Namchi Government College and Sikkim University who visited Gangtok’s 32 No. landfill site, where 30- 35 trucks of unsegregated waste end up being dumped daily. These mountains of waste that is testimony of increasingly wasteful lifestyles, convinced students that when it comes to waste disposal, there is no such thing as away, which led them to question their own consumption habits and commit to bring about change in their lifestyles.

The visit to the landfill site had been organised by the Zero Waste Himalaya Group that works
across the Sikkim Darjeeling landscape on waste management issues, as part of a two day
orientation programme on November 6 -7 for expanding their volunteer base.

During the two days, students were sensitized on the issues of waste management through
interactive talks, group activities and films. The main focus was on discussing about how current
practices of linear production systems were not sustainable on a resource finite planet. The
concepts and principles around zero waste were shared with the participants that provided them
with new insights on waste reduction, resource recovery
and that individual actions matter.

Concepts of extended producer responsibility, closed loop economies and clean production
systems were explained as being meaningful alternatives. An important session was on
conserving and promoting local food cultures, which not only meant eating healthy and
supporting local economy, but also one that provided waste free solutions instead of consuming junk plastic packaged food that were high on sugar and salt.

The need to compost and growing own food was also a key lesson for the participants. The role of mass media in the promotion of this consumerist wasteful lifestyle was also highlighted and the need for media literacy and consciousness was discussed.

The second day’s visit to the landfill site was organised for participants to realise how dire the
waste situation really was, and for them to understand the importance of segregation at source.

‘I never bothered to find out where the waste from my dustbin was ending up. Now I know that dustbins are not the end of the waste  problem.’ Susmita from Namchi Government College commented. ‘This was an eye-opener for me’ said Dawa, a student from SU after the visit to 32 No landfill. ‘I feel I have also contributed to this mess, and I will try to reduce the waste I produce as much as possible.’

At the end of the two days session, participants worked in groups to develop possible campaign

ideas that could be taken up at their institutional level.

Some of the ideas that evolved were initiating segregation of waste, ensuring zero waste functions, organising awareness events,

etc.
Apart from these, individual commitments were also shared by participants, with most of them committing to reduce junk packaged food items, sugarated drinks, bottled water and use and throw items and to promote composting.

On the second day, participants also interacted with Mr. Anil Raj Rai, Special Secretary RMDD,

who spoke to them from his experiences on how individual commitments matter. The group of

volunteers trained in this programme would be engaged in the coming days to raise awareness

on waste issues. The programme organised by the Zero Waste Himalaya Group (Sikkim and

Darjeeling) had 39 participants and was supported by WWF- India and RMDD.