The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has proposed to process dry waste at its new wet well sites in Madhya near Surathkal and Bajal in the city to reduce the load at the dry waste processing unit at Pachchanady dumping yard.
Talking to reporters during his visit to the Pachchanady solid waste processing unit on Tuesday, Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur said sheds for dry waste processing are ready at the new wet well sites.
“Dry waste processing has started in a small way already, which will be upscaled gradually. MCC is actively pursuing to diversify dry waste processing to drastically reduce the load on Pachchanady unit,” he said.
Everyday 3,570 tonnes of wet waste of the city is brought to Pachchnady for processing. City-based Ento Protein Limited uses black soldier fly technology to prepare vermicompost by processing wet waste.
The Mayor said people are still mixing wet and dry waste as the facility receives about 100 tonnes of mixed waste. “I urge people to properly segregate the waste at home and hand it over to waste collectors,” he said.
The dry waste faciity processes nearly 180 tonnes dry waste every week. Plastic bags, bottles and other dry waste are compressed to prepare bales which are sent to cement and other industries, he said.
Mr. Kannur said the MCC has procured water sprinklers and other fire fighting material at a cost of ₹40 lakh to avert any mishaps as there are more chances of fire with the prevailing hot climate.
While two borewells are already sunken, laying pipelines around the landfill site, connecting them to borewells and installation of fire fighting equipment will start from Wednesday, he said.
Earlier, Mr. Kannur went around the solid waste processing unit along with Deputy Mayor Sunitha, and councillors Premanand Shetty, K. Bhaskar, Bharath Kumar and Sangeetha R. Nayak.
Noticing large quantity of plastic carry bags in the wet waste, councillors asked the MCC staff to ensure waste collecting agency carries the segregation in the right way. Ms. Nayak asked officials why the waste segregation machine was in disuse.
To the question about the way large amount of tender coconut shells are recycled, bioremediation expert Kiran P. Kulkarni from Ministry of Urban Development said city-based Bhuvi Renewable Energies is processing the shells to produce coir and cocopeat. Another city based firm has proposed to produce bricks using the husk, he said.
