Waste Management System, the Alexandra way

Segregation of wastes – the wet from the dry - starts from the unit/household. The kitchen wastes are stored separately. The wet ones, which are usually non-recyclable are put in the green plastic bag, and the dry ones, which are mostly recyclable are kept in the black plastic bag. Once either of the bags is filled up, it is placed at the doorstep ready for the janitor’s collection. The kitchen wastes are brought to the top floor for processing by individual unit/household.

Composting of Kitchen Wastes

Each unit/household takes care of its own kitchen wastes. It has its own pots, four to seven pots per unit/household. Using clay pots, which are kept in their respective terraces or at the rooftop of the building, kitchen wastes are processed by individual household.

Kitchen wastes include food trimmings, fish gills, vegetables and fruit skins, seeds, pulp, tea bags, coffee grinds, coffee filters, and leftover food. Vegetables, and leftover food are chopped into small pieces for faster decomposition.

The process, which they call "lasagna method", starts with a layer of soil (as the base) on which a layer – preferably not more than 3 inches thick - of wastes is added. This is then covered with a very thin layer of Happy Soil (which hastens the process of decomposition), and another layer of ordinary soil. When the pot is filled up, a thin layer of coconut dust is put on top to absorb the moisture and at the same time absorb the odor generated by the process. The same process is followed in other pots.

The pots are put in the shaded area of the rooftop and/or terraces. When they run out of shaded areas, plastic sheets are used to keep the pots from getting wet or exposed directly to the heat of the sun.

Twenty days later, the decomposed wastes can already be used as soil for the next round of compost.

Dry Wastes

The black bag is left at the respective doorstep of each unit and are regularly collected by the janitor assigned in every building. At the utility area of the building, the contents are further segregated by the building janitor according to the preferred choice of the buyer – bottles/glasses, paper, cans, plastic.

A buyer of recyclable wastes visits Alexandra every week to buy large volumes of dry wastes. The remaining wastes that are not bought by the buyer are put back in the black plastic bags ready for pick up by the government garbage collector.

Wet Wastes

The wet wastes which are placed inside the green plastic bags are collected by the building janitor at the homeowner’s doorstep. These go directly to a large garbage bin, ready for the garbage collection trucks.

Garden Wastes

A small area, approximately 5 by 3 meters, is allotted at the back for the garden wastes, most of it are dry leaves. These are left for a period of time to decompose.

Building Management

Each building has one Administrative Assistant. One of his/her functions is to monitor the garbage management of each household – checking the composting process up on the roof, determining the regular users of building’s garbage drop, monitoring which unit/s does/do not practice the proper segregation of wastes, and identifying building champions.

Part of his/her regular task is to conduct a regular seminar on garbage management (waste segregation, recycling, and composting) for the homeowners and/or its representatives. The seminar is conducted monthly. This is to take care of the constant change of household helps and the tendency of some residents to relax a bit in their household waste management. He/she also conducts regular surveys pertaining to this new solid waste management scheme so as to have feedback from the residents. Suggestions from residents are regularly collected for evaluation.

At least one janitor is assigned in each building. His tasks include, among others, the collection of the green and black bags left at the doorstep of each unit, and the segregation of the contents of the black bags.

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