The Hindu 11.01.2010
Japanese model of waste management proposed
Priti Narayan
| Garbage will be segregated into three categories |
Town generates around 350 tonnes of garbage per day
Proper incineration, unlike open-air burning, does not release noxious gases
PUDUCHERRY: As a permanent solution to Puducherry’s garbage disposal problem, the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee (PPCC) has proposed the implementation of the Japanese model of solid waste management in the town.
According to the Action Plan proposed, available on the PPCC website, the model involves a different kind of source segregation of garbage, into three kinds: kitchen waste, incinerable waste and inert waste.
“Japan’s high life expectancy has a lot to do with the basic concept of waste management: the objective is to simply remove garbage that could contain pathogens that cause diseases like malaria, filariasis, cholera and typhoid,” environmental engineer N. Ramesh of PPCC explained. In Japan, waste is segregated into eight categories, but Puducherry can adopt a simplified approach, he added.
The town generates around 350 tonnes of garbage a day. According to the proposal, segregation of waste into these three categories would take place at the household level. Kitchen waste, which have the tendency to rot and produce odour, would be collected everyday, and directed to a composite plant, in which composting can be facilitated.
Incinerable waste, such as paper scraps, cloth and plastic cups, would be collected once a week and directed to an incinerator, while inert waste, such as broken ceramic, glass and metal scraps, collected once a month would be taken to a landfill site.
Proper incineration at 1,200 degrees and more, as opposed to open-air burning of garbage, does not release noxious gases, and the ash can be directed to the landfill site, along with inert waste. This way, only 10 per cent of the entire garbage generated will find its way to the landfill site, unlike now, when almost all the garbage goes to the dump, Mr. Ramesh said.
Another salient point in the proposal is the setting up of transition collection points. “One of the problems faced today is that our garbage collection trucks having to travel long distances to dump large amounts of garbage. Instead, the trucks could come to the transition point and transfer the garbage into a compacter, a closed vehicle with the capacity of five trucks, and from thereon, the compacter could go to the destination — be it the composite plant, incinerator or landfill,” Mr. Ramesh said.
The estimated cost of the entire project is Rs.50 crore, and the initial expenditure on awareness handbooks and five public dustbins, each a set of three, would come to around Rs. 1 crore.
The solution would be a permanent one and is bound to make Puducherry a clean, green place, Mr. Ramesh said.
