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Solid Waste Management

Waste treatment plant remains a non-starter

Monday, 15 April 2013 00:00 administrator
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The New Indian express                15.04.2013

Waste treatment plant remains a non-starter

Rourkela is yet to get its proposed domestic waste treatment plant though seven years have passed since it was announced.

Sanitation in Rourkela city, which has a population of around six lakh, has gone for a toss as the plant continues to be delayed. Heaps of garbage are unscientifically dumped in low-lying areas across the city.

In 2007, Sundargarh district administration had asked the Rourkela Municipality for setting up a domestic waste treatment plant at a cost of ` five crore sanctioned under the 12th Finance Commission. Till date, the administration has not been able to find a suitable place for the project.

After facing opposition from the locals at Balughat, the administration unsuccessfully tried to earmark land in adjoining Bisra and Lathikata blocks for the purpose.  Municipality sources said above 60,000 households spread over the municipality limits daily generate between 115 tonnes and 120 tonnes of garbage while the contribution of the captive township of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) is another 70 tonnes. In a joint arrangement in 2010, the municipality and RSP decided to set up a treatment plant within a year and RSP was to arrange 35 acres of land at Tarkera. The civic body had then offered ` two crore in the first phase. However, things went awry for unknown reasons.

Municipality Vice-Chairman RN Mishra admitted that the proposal has been put on the back burner. The civic body has reportedly utilised a major portion of the said fund towards outsourcing the sanitary services.

Having unscientifically dumped garbage in low-lying areas of Balughat, Civil Township, near the Rourkela Government College, STI, Power House Road and Koel Nagar, the municipality has now settled for the vacant space between the airstrip and BPUT campus. The RSP too has been dumping wastes there. Regional Officer of Odisha State Pollution Control Board Niranjan Mallick said last year, both RSP and the municipality were slapped with show cause notices. While the RSP is carrying out soil topping, municipality is yet to oblige, he added.

 

‘Garbage treatment at source’ scheme inauguration today

Sunday, 14 April 2013 00:00 administrator
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The Hindu                       14.04.2013

‘Garbage treatment at source’ scheme inauguration today

Staff Reporter

Labour Minister Shibu Baby John will inaugurate the ‘garbage treatment at source’ scheme of the Kollam Corporation at a function at Vaddy beach on Monday.

Mayor Prasanna Earnest told mediapersons that, to begin with, 5,000 biogas plants would be installed at the domestic level, each to cost Rs.10,500. The beneficiary share would be Rs.2,625 and the rest, almost 75 per cent, would be covered by the subsidy.

 

E-waste, an urban mining for IMMT scientists

Saturday, 13 April 2013 06:07 administrator
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The Hindu                     13.04.2013

E-waste, an urban mining for IMMT scientists

Satyasundar Barik

Discarded electronic goods may emerge as one of the biggest challenges to environment now. But scientists at Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) here treat the e-waste as a resource.

IMMT scientists managed a breakthrough in extracting metals such as copper, silver, nickel, palladium and gold from the e-waste, which earned a patent on the innovation. The premiere laboratory of IMMT under the aegis of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has developed a thermal plasma process to treat the e-waste to recover the metal values as well as treat the associated toxic gases.

“Waste generated in huge volume in urban centres is like urban mining for us. If the waste is handled with care, it would offer a lot to the society. The process of extracting valuable metals from e-waste developed by our scientists has proved this,” said B. K. Mishra, Director of IMMT, addressing a press conference here on Friday.

Increased use of electronic equipment in recent times has compounded the problem of piling electronic waste (e-waste).

While about 20-50 million tonnes of e-waste is generated every year, only 10 per cent of this is being recycled. The IMMT process would not only extract metals from e-waste but also take care of the environmental contamination.

Much of the credit for innovation goes to P. S. Mukherjee, Chief Scientist of Advanced Material Technology Department of IMMT. The research started with a modest beginning. A Chennai-based private firm had provided a meagre amount of Rs. 6 lakh to carry out research.

“Many e-waste materials contain valuable metals like gold and silver. Our effort is to how to extract those materials. What developed countries do is to send all their electronic goods to a facility and get the metals back and then separate individual metals. Now what we are trying to do is to extract individual metals from e-waste,” said Dr. Mukherjee.

 
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