The Hindu             31.10.2013

Making productive use of garbage

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Park set up by
Vettavalam town panchayat has, over the years, virtually turned into a
manufacturing unit of myriad products.

The facility
mainly produces natural manure and vermicompost. Besides composting, it
segregates egg-shells from the garbage, pounds them, using traditional
mortar, into powder that is then bottled and sold. The powder, used as
manure, catalyses the growth of rose plants.

The
facility also sells bottled leach, a liquid that seeps from manure
production pits. Authorities say that people buy them for its weed
suppressant quality. Plastic crumbs produced by crushing plastic
disposables are sold to government agencies to enhance the durability of
plastic roads.

Herbals and bamboo cultivated in the
premises of the SWM Park with the help of manure produced there are
another kind of production.

District Collector A.
Gnanasekaran, who visited the facility along with reporters on Tuesday,
said: “Apart from these manufactured goods, the park segregates 23 items
from non-bio-degradable wastes found in garbage and sell them. Though
the sales proceeds could not make up for the expenses of collecting,
segregating and manufacturing things from the wastes, as of now, we hope
that we could attain break-even at one point of time. Notwithstanding
the gap between expenses and income, the centre already has accomplished
its main objective of ensuring effective waste disposal and hygienic
environment”.

The facility has a clean look and feel
and lives up to the ‘Park’ tag. Asked how no stench emanates despite the
facility handling garbage, S.M. Malayamanthirumudikari, Assistant
Director of Town Panchayats, Vellore, told
The Hindu
: “Every kind of garbage takes a certain time to rot. For example, food
takes eight hours and vegetables take 12 hours. But we collect,
segregate and pile them up in appropriate pits and apply Effective
Microorganism solution within the time the garbage takes to rot and
stink”.

“The facility started in 2008 [is] performing
well but Rs. 41.6 lakh funds received as part of Integrated Urban
Development Mission for the year 2012-13 helped us to improve the
facility in many ways. Three sheds were constructed, machines for
cleaning and shredding plastic disposables; toilets built for the
sweepers and Self Help Group members who work in the SWM programme and
purchased 14 tricycles, constructed tiled pavements and set up eight
solar lights.

All this infrastructure helps give the
facility its pleasant and aesthetic look,” he said. Town Panchayat
President A. Janardhanan and Executive Officer S. Ganesan expressed the
hope that they could do more to sustain the glory of the ‘Park’.