The City Corporation that generates over 300 tonnes of garbage every day is still struggling to make progress in solid waste management.
There are noticeable developments in collection, but only a part of the garbage generated is processed and converted into manure through a tie-up with a private agency.
With population exceeding five lakh, the city with 60 wards spread over 110 sq km generates more than usual extent on Mondays and Tuesdays.
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The garbage is collected by hundreds of sanitary workers and members of women self help groups with push carts and tricycles, and emptied into dumper bins from where the wastes are transported in tipper lorries and tractors to the three disposal sites.
Vendipalayam Compost Yard, the biggest among the three, spread over 19.46 acres is where the waste processing is being carried out by the private agency: IWMUST on a four-acre site.
The agency has a capacity to process 120 tonnes of garbage. The rest keeps accumulating. The other two dump yards are at Veerappan Chathiram (7.91 acres) and Kasipalayam (1.50 acres).
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Besides the yearly rent of Rs. 24,000, the private agency pays the City Corporation royalty of Rs. 50 a tonne of manure produced, according to official figures.
Since 2009, the agency has produced 10,000 tonnes of organic manure, reflecting in revenue of over Rs. 6 lakh to the corporation. The residual unprocessed products and discarded items are being sent to a couple of cement plants periodically.
Over 8,000 tonnes of wastes have been sent to the cement factories for co-processing, the statistics indicate.
According to sources, the corporation is aiming to generate more revenue by ensuring optimal processing of garbage through a tie-up with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Chennai. Earlier this year, the centre’s Senior Scientist attached to Technology Coordination Wing J. Daniel Chellappa undertook a study and promised a higher returns from garbage processing through bio mining.
The procedure the expert advocated was conversion of biodegradable materials into inert waste over a duration ranging from six months to one year through treatment with suitable cultures befitting climatic condition, for hassle-free handling by conservancy workers without fear of biological contamination.
The inert materials could be used as landfills. As for revenue generation, conversion of a part of the garbage into manure and methane gas has been advocated. Roughly, a tonne of garbage generates 100 units of electricity or two to three cylinders of methane, going by an approximate estimate, the corporation was told.
Several local bodies in the State have, so far, enlisted the support of BARC for waste management and have been successful in generating revenue.
The corporation is expected to team up with BARC for environment-friendly treatment of wastes after fulfilling the due procedure of securing consent of its council, it is learnt.