After we got possession of our apartment in June 2015, had a plan to start basic segregation in our new apartment which we took possession in June 2015.

Builder left apartment in bad state and funds were very less. We contributed and planted saplings in campus on first environment day 2016 and got active participation. However in 2017 when I had Shailaja for environment day to talk on waste management, very few people turned up. They agreed to her points, but then all resented. I did not get any proper support till segregation started.

Then we visited apartment which followed segregation and when I gave estimation of Hasirudala, association rejected saying that the cost is more than double compared to private garbage mafia which took 4000 rs.

Few questions that came up and I answered as below:

1) Many apartments in Whitefield are not segregating. Then why should we?

A) May be they don’ t care for their future generations

2) Already our wives have lot of work. This will be additional work for them.

A) Women are multi-tasking.They also adapt quickly to changes.

3) We will segregate but BBMP always mixes. Why we should take effort?

A) Come with me to Waste collection center near Graphite and see with your eyes, how they segregate. Think about them how they stay, as we can not even breathe there for a minute.

Still after that they asked me to do door-to-door. 90% of people said they will follow and we finally started it on October 2, only when BBMP gave warning and told them collection also will be made by BBMP.

So we bought 2 bin 1 bag and 3 wheeled bins. Got 2 volunteers for checking waste segregation. We checked for 2 months and till date people are segregating.

However, we still face challenges:

1) BBMP has denied collection and our association is back to private garbage collector.

2) Persuaded them for Community Composting but they do not consider this as long term investment.

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