The first Monday of October is designated by United Nations as World Habitat Day and the theme for this year is ?Municipal Solid Waste Management? with the slogan ?Waste-Wise Cities?. This day reminds us that we as global citizens have the power and responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. The theme aims to:

• Raise awareness that Municipal solid waste is a global challenge that needs to be addressed
• Facilitate policy dialogue and form partnerships
• Promote innovative solutions to municipal solid waste management
• Mobilize resources to address the municipal solid waste challenges

The amount of waste and trash that we produce is growing exponentially every day. It is a global issue that needs to be addressed immediately. Poor solid waste disposal and waste burning can lead to serious health issues. This also causes air and water pollution.

Let?s imagine a day wherein we just throw our garbage, trash, and junk to the landfill without any authority or municipality or just dumped them in a nearby waterbody. It would be a complete disaster, isn?t it? The water and soil would be contaminated and in turn, lead to all types of pollution which would affect our health.

This year we can try to become ?Waste-Wise Cities? by significantly reducing the amount of solid waste by following some basic principles of reducing the amount of waste that is created, reusing materials that would otherwise be discarded, by recycling materials and by using recycled materials.  We can follow "3-R": "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle".

Reduce

• Carry a reusable bag for shopping
• Avoid food packaging items
• Carry a refillable stainless steel or metal water bottles
• Avoid printing unnecessary materials. If required print on both sides of the paper.
• Set a target and reduce the amount of waste generated on a daily basis.

Reuse

?       Use cloth towels/napkins instead of tissue papers

?       Try to reuse items such as packaging materials and carton boxes

Recycle/Compost

?       Separate your wastes and throw them in the appropriate bin so that they can be recycled.

?       Donate your old electronic appliances to a repair shop so that they can use the working spare parts.

?       Use fruits, vegetable peelings, and other organic waste to create a compost that can be used as fertilizers.

?       Recycle your old tyres, glass bottles, and plastics

The current state of solid waste management can be improved significantly if we all try to minimize the waste, stop littering, increase reusing, recycling and become ?Waste-Wise Cities?.