What if the organic waste did not have to be collected from across wards? What if all of it could be processed within the ward itself? With these ideas and a vision of decentralising the waste processing system, a organic waste converter was set up in Madivala on Monday.
The waste converter, weighing 1.1 tonne, has the capacity of processing 250 kg of organic waste a day and can cater to about 500 houses. The converter, costing Rs. 10 lakh, was set up at the Madivala Vegetable Market as part of a joint venture by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and Aruna Green Ventures, a private business unit based in Bangalore.
Terming it as the “most compact waste converter,” co-owner of Aruna Green Ventures Kumar Subba Rao said the equipment takes up less than one car parking slot. The lifespan of the converter is estimated to be 25 years. Mr. Kumar said the volume reduction of waste in the converter is nearly 85 to 90 per cent. “Almost 60 per cent of the total waste is wet waste. The converter automatically turns on the heating element once it detects wet waste and eliminates most of it, which helps in reducing the volume of waste,” he said. The waste will be converted into bio-manure. The converter runs on electricity with a power-saving mode.