Refuse derived fuel (RDF) after the biomining of old waste continues to pile up at the dumping yard of the Kochi Corporation at Brahmapuram, despite a directive from a technical committee to remove it to prevent pollution of the nearby Chitrapuzha and Kadambrayar.
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Efforts by the agency entrusted with biomining to transport the RDF to a cement manufacturing company at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu have failed. An updated status report on the waste management scenario at Brahmapuram submitted by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) before the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said that the cement company had rejected nearly three loads of RDF owing to its poor quality. RDF is used as an alternative to coal in cement plants.
The company carrying out biomining has requested the authorities to continue storing RDF at the site itself while saying that it could be used as fuel for the proposed waste-to-energy plant. The technical committee overseeing the biomining process had suggested in March 2022 that the recovered plastic had to be bailed and given to cement plants for co-incineration (thermal treatment of waste for energy generation).
The PCB report submitted on September 6 pointed out that the firm had not installed the machine for bailing segregated waste generated during biomining. The technical committee had asked it to notify the proposed date of installation of bailing machine and to submit the revised action plan for work implementation.
It is to be noted that fresh waste is being transferred from Corporation areas, and biodegradable waste from six municipalities and two panchayats is still being disposed of at Brahmapuram, which lacked proper treatment facility. The Corporation has not submitted any concrete proposal for the management of fresh waste deposited at the yard, according to the report.