In the three months or so I have
inhabited Pune, I have experienced nothing but wonderfulness, expect in one (or
maybe two, if I count air pollution, mostly a result of a fun fact: Pune is the
city with the most two wheelers- scooters and motorcycles- in the world)
regard(s): the trash. In Pune, as in some other cities in India, trash
disposal, collection, and processing is an infrastructural challenge, partly
due to corruption.
Most all residents and restaurants of Pune have separate bins for
"wet" and "dry" waste, or organic and non-organic waste,
and most Puneites do separate their trash. Yet the insufficiency of the city's
trash processing plant, which was designed to process about ten times more
garbage than it is currently processing, according to an article in The
Times of India, has led to the common practice of burning trash in the
streets.
To my dismay, but to the numerous stray dogs' delight, trash is piled
into overflowing dumpsters and left to sit around the city. The city employs people to sweep
the streets and to sort through this build up of trash. These city workers and
other citizens can be found collecting leaves, and piling them onto small
mounds of trash, to set ablaze every morning. Not only is this a health hazard,
as the burning of plastics release harmful toxins into the air, but it also
worsens air pollution as well, further taxing the environment. Yet, if it
wasn't done trash would surely overwhelm the streets, since the trash processing plant isn't serving the
needs of the city. While I see this trash disposal method as problematic, I can
appreciate citizens' need to take disposal into their own hands. I just wish a
healthier solution can be found, for the people of the city's health.
A recently added trash can along the walking
park of a jogging track nearby Gokhale Insitute.
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