Six plants to handle wet waste are going to come up in Chennai. In addition, a pilot project to convert wet waste into bio-CNG at Chetpet will come into operation from July, a senior official of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) said. The plants are expected to manage 1,800 tonnes of wet waste.
At an online discussion on managing Chennai’s solid waste in COVID times, organised by Citizen Matters Chennai, N. Mahesan, chief engineer, solid waste management, said the trial run for the plant to convert 100 tonnes of food waste, meat and chicken waste into energy is over and the plant will come on stream in July. “When the whole project [six plants] comes up, nearly 1,800 tonnes of wet waste will be used up,” he said.
A project to use mobile incinerators is going to be launched soon through CSR funding from Renault-Nissan. It is also currently under a trial run, he said.
Speakers at the meeting said there was lack of transparency in data sharing from the GCC. There was no proper messaging and levying of fines for not segregating waste
Pugalventhan. V, a medical waste activist, said, “Despite filing RTI Act applications on action taken after a complaint, there is no response. In many places, they clear the waste but what happens to the waste after that is a question mark,” he said.
Mathew Jose, founder and CEO, Paperman, said the city lacked a vision with regard to waste management. “All the cities which have done well have had a vision of where they want to be in 2035. That’s the first step. We need to take small steps. Change happens with consistency,” he said.
Sumana Narayanan, senior researcher, CAG ,said if one missed the battery-operated vehicle that collects waste from each household, people dump the garbage in the bins kept in their street without segregating it. “Penalties need to be implemented properly and it needs to be very strong,” she said.
