Hyderabad might have scored 36 out of 92 points in the city biodiversity index, but it is left with a huge mound of trash to tackle. The just concluded conference is dubbed a huge success considering the commitment wrung out from participating nations to double the funding to halt the rate of biodiversity loss.
However, few know that the 14,000 delegates who racked their brains for 19 days ended up generating a whopping 24.55 metric tonnes of trash. An astounding 9,924 kg of waste comprised of paper and cloth alone although the event was tipped to be an e-conference. This is explained by the constant review of the CBD guidelines by the participating nations leading to consumption of reams of paper for re-writing of reports and documents.
The next chunk of waste – 8,424 kg to be precise – is accounted by half eaten and left over food by the delegates. This is followed by plastic (4,621 kg), glass (991 kg) and metal (595 kg). The CoP is over and so are the mop up operations.
But the process of recycling the enormous waste is still on.
Ramky Enviro Engineers, who are assigned the task of solid waste management for the mega event by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, are busy recycling the trash – a process that involves collection, grinding, shredding, extraction to finished goods. The food goes to composting through several layers of screening, curing and separation.
Along with ITC’s WOW (Wealth out of Waste) initiative, Ramky is trying to reuse the accumulated waste in a meaningful way.
The UN wanted cent percent recycling of the generated trash. But Ramky is recycling only 85 percent since the rest is ‘inerts’ and can’t be salvaged. All this goes to sanitary landfill. After segregating at source, seven truckloads of garbage was shifted to the Jawharnagar dumping yard. Asia’s leading provider of comprehensive environment management services succeeded in sending across the message that India is good at waste management.
Ramky handled the whole thing in a professional way. For its 20 member house keeping staff, a quick course in English language was arranged to brush up their communication skills. Aprons, shoes, gloves and bins with ‘Ramky’ logo were made exclusively for the international event.
When Korea hosts the next edition of biodiversity summit in 2014, Ramky is sure it will be there to manage the waste.
