The Chennai Corporation has drawn up a comprehensive programme for processing and disposing of the 5,000-plus tonnes of solid waste generated in the city every day, in a scientific manner.
The Solid Waste Department of the civic body has come up with various initiatives like micro-composting, generating biogas, installing incinerators and using plastic waste as fuel for cement industries to dispose of wet and dry waste. The various projects for disposing of waste have already begun, and are at different stages of implementation.
A senior Corporation official, revealing the plans set into motion for managing solid waste, said the aim was to create a ‘zero percent garbage city’ by the year-end. The senior civic official said that as part of ‘zero percent garbage city’, both Pallikaranai and Kodungaiyur dumpyards, located on waterbodies, would be “shut down”, and the legacy waste also cleared by June next year.
The civic body has already given a work order to a private agency for clearing the garbage pile at the Alandur dumpyard, which was shut down several years ago. Bio-mining at the dumpyard, located on the Tambaram-Velachery Main Road, is under progress. The bio-mining plant in operation at the Alandur dumpyard has helped segregate plastic waste and bio-manure. The plastic waste processed from the plant is sold off to cement factories for powering them. The senior civic official said a total of over 5,000 tonnes of solid waste was being generated in the 200 wards, covering 15 zones of the city, every day, with 2,550 tonnes of wet waste and 2,450 tonnes of dry waste.
The civic body has set up micro-composting centres for processing 350 tonnes of wet waste a day. Through vermi-composting, construction of well rings, and installation of biogas and bio-methanisation plants, more than 750 tonnes of wet waste is converted into fuel in a day. Biogas plants are functioning at the Perambur slaughter house and at Amma Unnavagams. The fuel generated from biogas plants is used for cooking at the Amma Unnavagams and powering streetlights.
The civic body has also issued work orders for bio-compressed natural gas plants at four locations, for a total capacity of 350 tonnes a day, at the old central asphalt plant in Anna Nagar, Madhavaram, Pallikaranai marshland and Sholinganallur, along with windrow processing (open-air aerobic process) at two places, for a capacity of 100 tonnes a day. Five locations, including the central asphalt plant, general stores on Wall Tax Road and the two dumpyards in Kodungaiyur and Pallikaranai will have facilities for processing garden garbage, with a total capacity of 400 tonnes.
Recovery centres
For dry waste such as plastic covers and other inorganic waste, the civic body has set up resource-recovery centres at 74 locations, and material-recovery facilities at 110 places, with a total capacity of 250 tonnes. With the trial run of the incinerator plant of 10 tonnes in progress at Manali, the civic body also plans to remove over 600 tonnes of waste in a day, by having six 100-tonne capacity plants at Athipattu, Sathangadu, Mylapore, Ayanavaram, Kodungaiyur and Pallikaranai. The official said that a work order had been issued for setting up an incinerator plant, with a 50-tonne capacity, at the Kodungaiyur dumpyard.
The civic official said that tenders had been called for processing dry waste for fuel purposes, for cement industries, with a capacity of 300 tonnes.
