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Life amid litter
The New Indian Express
|November 09, 2024
“Nadhu kuppai, enadhu porupu, ena urudhi alaipomae.” Most of us wake up to these lyrics played on the garbage pickup vehicles. This song is the citizens’ alarm to create a society with proper waste management system and educates them to segregate waste.
After the first level of segregation at home, the garbage collectors separate dry and wet waste. Then, waste pickers divide paper-based products into cardboard, newspapers, white and coloured; metals into aluminium, copper, and brass; and plastics into pet bottles, and dolls. They sell these products to recycle shops and earn money.
“Our livelihoods are dependent on selling this waste,” says Kuppai, a waste picker from Perungudi.
This story is from the November 09, 2024 edition of The New Indian Express.
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