Coonoor turns wet waste into high quality compost

‘The compost can be used for organic farming as it has very low heavy metal content’

Waste collected from households and market in Coonoor is turned into compost at the waste management facility in the town.

The Coonoor Municipality (CMC), in partnership with local NGO Clean Coonoor, has managed to produce high quality compost from wet waste generated in the town’s households and market.

The first batch of compost, weighing around 10 tonnes, was produced in a relatively short period of 10 days, said P.J. Vasanthan, trustee of Clean Coonoor.

Mr. Vasanthan said that usually compost made from municipal waste can only be used on lawns and gardens due to the presence of heavy metal content in waste collected from households. “However, due to excellent source segregation that is enforced by the sanitary workers employed by the municipality, it is possible to produce high-quality manure,” said Mr. Vasanthan.

A sample of the compost was tested in Coimbatore. “The test revealed that the fertility index score was at 3.8 out of five and a clean index score of 4.3. This indicates high-quality compost with low heavy metal content, which can be used for high-value crops in organic farming,” he added.

“The success of composting tonnes of wet waste in a short period in adverse weather conditions can be attributed to the fact that the unit uses conventional windrow composting as against the in-vessel method advocated in most centres. Windrows can be much more easily manipulated to counter the changes in weather. The unit also uses a 30 HP pulveriser to homogenize the waste, while wood ash from nearby tea factories is used as a bulking agent,” said Samantha Iyanna, Managing trustee of Clean Coonoor.

The success of the project has also been credited to the Coonoor Municipality for their work in ensuring segregation at source during the daily door-to-door collection of waste in the town.

T. Krishnamurthi, CMC Commissioner, said that waste from households as well as from the Coonoor Market, including chicken and vegetable waste, is turned into compost in the waste management park at Ottupattarai. “The public-private partnership has ensured that almost all the wet waste collected from the town can be dealt with and turned into compost,” said Mr. Krishnamurthi.