At the just-concluded Agri Intex 2016, the Coimbatore Corporation has managed to sell 13,140 vermin compost bags of a kg each. The Corporation has produced the manure at its organic waste processing facility in the Vellalore yard.
Sources in the Corporation said that the civic body had been doing really well in processing organic waste, turning it into compost and then selling the same – all through a contractor. The Corporation would collect organic and food waste exclusively from markets and restaurants and send those to the vermin compost plant in Vellalore.
There the contractor, Vardhan Infrastructure, Coimbatore, would process those. The company took about eight weeks to turn the wet, organic waste to dry vermin compost. For every 100 tonne organic waste the company produced around four to five tonne, the sources said.
The Corporation had asked the contractor to improve the waste to manure ratio and accordingly, the contractor was taking steps to improve it 10 tonne manure for every 100 tonne waste. For processing the waste, the Corporation paid the contractor Rs. 750 a tonne. The Corporation Council had approved of the rate at its June 24, 2016 meeting. The operator would sell the manure and take the proceeds.
Ever since the Corporation began the organic manure production process, it had seen encouraging response. The Corporation had initially set up the plant 2006 and it was in operation for a few years – Ramky Energy and Environment Limited, Hyderabad was operating the plant. The company expressed its inability in 2014 and thereafter the organic manure producing facility in Vellalore had more or less remained dormant.
The Corporation revived it sometime ago and had handed it over to Vardhan Infrastructure.
After studying the process for some more time, the Corporation planned to further streamline the process of wet, organic waste transportation. At present, it used the very lorries it was also using for transporting inorganic waste. The lorries would first transport inorganic waste and then return to collect the organic waste.
Plus, the lorries were collecting the organic waste by visiting all the collection points. Instead, the Corporation had planned to install a portable compacting unit in a zone for all the organic waste to be dumped there.
A lorry would then take the portable compactor to the Vellalore plant. This would reduce the transportation time and cost, the sources added.
The Corporation officials said that by operating the plant, the Corporation was also trying to reduce the burden on the waste processing contractor, who was processing over 400 tonnes waste a day.
The Corporation generated close to 900 tonnes waste a day.
