ICLEI South Asia, in collaboration with Meerut Nagar Nigam and Club 60 NGO, organised an event on the 12th of December 2022 in Tagore Park, Meerut to inaugurate the composting practices in the area. A training was also organised for the benefit of the residents of H Block, Shastri Nagar, in the city to understand how to use the composter, create awareness regarding composting and its advantages. Many people view decomposable organic waste as environmentally harmless (because it is biodegradable) without realizing how much it contributes to their greenhouse gas footprints. Encouraging people to handle their food waste responsibly and doing the same, can help fight climate change and air pollution on daily basis.
Meerut Nagar Nigam developed the composter using their own funds by converting an old bin into a composter to process waste at the community level, under their Kabaad se Jugaad campaign, which focuses on low-cost beautification by using scrap. ICLEI South Asia provided technical assistance to the initiative.
At the Meerut event, as part of its Building City Leadership on Clean Air Action project, supported by the Clean Air Fund, the ICLEI South Asia team spoke about how composting could help improve air quality and dispose of horticulture waste easily, instead of the more common and polluting practice of burning it.