The Hindu 22.01.2014
Coimbatore Corporation begins to process wet waste at crematorium
Following the initiative to segregate waste at ward 23
in R.S. Puram, the Coimbatore Corporation has taken the next step by
processing wet waste.
According to Corporation
Commissioner G. Latha, the civic body had started the process a week
ago, on an experimental basis, at the Chokkampudur crematorium, where
the civic body had dug three pits to process the waste.
The
area councillor S. Manimeghalai said that conservancy workers collected
two small truck loads of wet waste, took it to the crematorium, where
they dumped it in the first pit.
The workers then sprinkled effective micro-organism solution to hasten the process of composting.
They also topped it with dry waste and dried and powdered cow dung to complete the process.
Thereafter, every day, the workers would stir the waste till the 20{+t}{+h}day.
They would then transfer the waste to the second pit.
Once
the experiment was complete, the workers would dig a bigger pit to
accommodate the entire ward’s wet waste. Ms. Manimeghalai said that the
initiative had provided a solution in wet waste management, which became
necessary after the Corporation and residents came together to
segregate waste.
Every day, the workers in the ward
collected six-and-half to seven tonnes of dry waste, which they sold to a
private firm which paid the workers at Rs. 3 a kg.
Fuel
Ms.
Latha said that the local processing of wet waste also helped the
Corporation save on fuel in that the civic body need not transport the
waste till the compost yard in Vellalore.
The motto was local solution for local problem.
If
the civic body found the process successful, it could consider
replicating it in other wards, starting with the four wards where it had
begun waste segregation.
