The Times of India                09.01.2014 

Pune civic body to set up incinerators to dispose of sanitary napkins

PUNE: A pilot project started in August last year to treat used sanitary napkins has been a success prompting the Pune Municipal Corporation to set up specialized medium size incinerators across wards.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has zeroed in on a permanent solution for the safe disposal of sanitary waste. The civic body has decided on ward-wise installation of specialized medium size incinerators, the pilot of which has been successfully running in ward number 37 since August last year.

Over the next one month, the civic body will have the facility in ward number 51 (areas around SP College) and 21 (Koregaon Park). Another facility will come at Hadapsar soon. The contract for the first two facilities has been given to the Janadhar Seva Bhavi Sanstha, which not only collects and disposes of sanitary waste in ward 37, where the pilot project was started last year, but also educates women about the need for safe disposal of the napkins.

According to a survey done by the Bharatiya Stree Shakti Jagaran, nearly 2.5 lakh sanitary napkins are collected from the waste in the city every day. There was not a single disposal unit in the city till August last year, when the first unit one came up at Vartak Garden in Shaniwar Peth.

In most parts of the city, sanitary napkins are still not segregated from other solid waste and are disposed off with other garbage. Despite the cost involved, PMC officials believe that setting up ward-level incinerators are the only feasible means to ensure safe disposal of the soiled napkins.

Suresh Jagtap, head of the solid waste management department, said the PMC wants to implement a long-term system which involves people's participation. "We tried to get the manufacturers of the sanitary napkins to come on board for tackling the issue of their disposal, which is a part of their 'Extended Producer's Responsibility'. But the response was very poor. We have now decided to have public participation for this and want to encourage segregation-at-source itself. We are also looking at making separate collection centres in public places like toilets etc, one of which has already come up in Kothrud," Jagtap said. The civic body is also actively looking for long-term solutions for other forms of hazardous waste, such as household medical waste, adult and child diapers and e-waste.

Kalpana Baliwant, zonal medical officer of PMC, explained the initiative taken to promote segregation-at-source. "We are targeting schools, colleges, girls' hostels and even residential societies and offices with a large women population to educate citizens about the need to collect such waste separately. We are also working on a proposal of distributing different bins for it, but even without them, we encourage women to discard used sanitary napkins wrapped in newspapers and dispose them separately, so that waste-pickers don't come into direct contact with them," Baliwant said.

Amol Kale, project coordinator at Janadhar Seva Bhavi Sanstha, which has been doing the actual on-ground work for this experiment in the city, believes awareness is the key to its success. "In ward number 37, our waste pickers collect sanitary waste separately. People are receptive once you explain the aspects of waste disposal. At the incinerator in Shaniwar Peth, we are handling about 650 sanitary napkins daily, though the capacity of the machine is much more. The facilities coming up in ward numbers 51 and 21 will be even bigger. After the napkins are burnt at high temperature, the ash is being safely used as plant fertilizers," he said.