The city Corporation has decided to revive its plan to establish a vermicompost unit at Chala here.
S. Pushpalatha, chairperson of the Corporation’s standing committee for health, told The Hindu on Monday that the civic body had decided to set a vermicompost unit on 23 cents of land under its possession at Chala since the government had not moved ahead with its plan to set up a modern garbage treatment plant there.
The government, she said, had proposed to set up a 36-tonne power generating waste treatment plant, but no steps had been taken to realise the plan.
“We will take the estimate and start the process of identifying a competent agency to set up the unit,” Ms. Pushpalatha said.
Vermicomposting, she said, was one of the most effective methods of disposing of waste in a stench-free environment. It could be implemented with the help of Kudumbasree workers, who could be employed to collect and segregate waste.
Along with the move to set up the vermicompost unit, the civic body will set up Pattoor-model organic waste converters in at least eight wards in the near future, Palayam Rajan, chairman of the standing committee for welfare, said.
The civic body has unveiled a plan to deal with non-biodegradable waste generated in the city. The Suchitwa Mission had written to the civic body to identify places in the city where non-biodegradable waste could be stored and then collected by vendors. The mission has identified a few vendors to collect the non-biodegradable waste, including plastics.
The civic body would start on a pilot basis the collection of non-biodegradable waste using Kudumbasree members in Palayam, Sreekanteswaram, Chala, Manacaud, Karamana, and Nedumkad wards. The Kudumbasree members in Palayam and Sreekanteswaram wards had been given training in collecting biodegradable waste, Mr. Rajan said.
