Coimbatore, in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, has a successful story for
the City Corporation here to pick at least a few examples, as it is a
municipal corporation that manages solid waste generated in 100 wards
and has a bigger area and population than Thiruvananthapuram.

At
the national seminar on solid waste management, G Latha, municipal
commissioner of the Coimbatore municipal corporation, came up with the
methods with which it has been managing the waste generated there. 

The
waste collected from the households is brought to transfer stations and
then carried away to the compost plants. There, organic waste and
rejects get separated.

Using JnNURM funds, the Coimbatore
corporation has set up modernised waste transfer stations at Peelamedu,
Sathy Road and Ukkadam and beautified the abandoned dump yards at
Ondipudur, Kavundampalayam and Vellalore. Sanitary landfilling is done
very scientifically.

Even when tipping fee and quantity of waste
generation is on the rise,  the civic body is trying new initiatives,
including biomethanisation and roping in organisations, agencies and
NGOs for strengthening the solid waste management. Even the waste-laden
trucks are monitored using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

Special training is provided to sanitary workers for improving efficiency under a capacity-building project.

Due importance is also given to the management of hazardous and e-waste, construction waste and plastic waste.

In
the municipal area that is divided into five, plastic waste management
is fully managed in one particular division by entering into a tie-up
with an organisation that collects it door-to-door and processes the
waste by itself.

The civic body is planning to extend the facility to the other four divisions also.