CHandigarh MC planning to set up plant to segregate mixed waste at Dadumajra dump
The civic body collects around 500 tonnes of waste daily, of which around 300 tonnes is wet waste, including horticulture waste, while the remaining is dry waste
With the aim to segregate mixed waste into dry and wet before processing, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is planning to set up an automated municipal solid waste segregation plant at the Dadumajra dumping ground at a cost of ₹5.22 crore.
The proposal will be taken up for approval in the MC House meeting scheduled on June 11.
The civic body collects around 500 tonnes of waste daily, of which around 300 tonnes is wet waste, including horticulture waste, while the remaining is dry waste.
According to MC officials, 100% of waste is being collected door-to-door from households in four categories: dry, wet, sanitary and domestic hazardous waste.
However, with different wet and dry waste processing plants in place, MC is able to process only 430 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste, leading to a gap of nearly 70 TDP (mixed waste) between generation and processing.
As per MC officials, despite a combination of adequate labour and capital intensive waste management efforts to achieve 100% segregation of waste at source, approximately 70 TPD of mix/unsegregated waste is being collected daily and manual segregation of this waste is not possible. Therefore, this garbage is getting dumped at the Dadumajra landfill daily, without processing.
Thus, machinery to segregate the mixed waste into dry and wet fractions efficiently is required to be set up, MC officials said in the agenda, which will be placed in the House during the June 11 meeting. “The machine will provide effective service delivery to the citizens and also secure a higher ranking in the annual Swachh Survekshan,” it was added.
MC’s finance and contract committee has already approved funds to install a shredder at the solid waste processing plant in Dadumajra to process 5 TPD big dry waste, such as bed sheets, car seat covers, mattresses, travel bags and other items, which are presently being dumped at the landfill without processing. Funds have also been approved for installation, testing and commissioning of a high-pressure fogging system for odour control at the wet waste composting plant.
It is pertinent to mention that MC has already approved a project to set up a new integrated waste management plant at Dadumajra. Aimed at effectively tackling the city’s daily waste generation of 550 metric tonnes (MT), the new plant, with a capacity of 600 tonnes per day, is proposed to comprise three facilities – one each for dry, wet and horticulture waste. Spread over 20 acres, it will be set up on a part of the Dadumajra landfill after clearing the area and as per current proposal, the project will be allotted for a total of 17 years, including two years for construction, and 15 years for operation and maintenance. Though the project is approved, MC is yet to allot it to a private firm.
On February 29 this year, MC had inaugurated a temporary wet waste processing plant at the landfill to ensure 100% processing of daily wet waste. With inadequate facility before this, the civic body was dumping around 174 MT of unprocessed fresh wet waste at Dadumajra dumping ground daily. The dry waste, including horticulture and sanitary garbage, is completely processed daily.
