The high cost associated with disposing sanitary waste at centralised plants is dissuading many apartments from approaching authorised incinerators, reveals the study by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). All the apartment blocks studied had sent their sanitary waste to either unauthorised incinerators or had not known where this waste ends up.
“Currently, the cost to dispose this sanitary waste can be up to Rs. 30 per kg because of the transportation costs. Instead, if the process is decentralised, more apartments can drop this waste in authorised collection centres from where incinerator companies can pick up this waste,” said Megha Shenoy of ATREE.
The study of four apartments shows that the amount of sanitary waste (diaper, sanitary napkin, and often, reject wastes of plastics) generated in households is far more than BBMP estimates.
While BBMP data show sanitary waste at being 5% of the entire waste generated, ATREE’s study of three apartment blocks show that sanitary waste can form up to 14% of the total waste.
COMMents
SHARE