MANGALORE: This coastal city is decades ahead of Bangalore on garbage clearance and needn't lose sleep over handling of solid waste at least until year 2035.

It generates nearly 200 tonnes of waste daily which is taken to the compost plant at Pachchanady, 10km from here, for processing. The waste that cannot be converted is shifted to an adjacent landfill site, designed to handle waste generated up till 2035. The compost plant and landfill site are spread over 77.93 acres of land, of which 25.4 acres is earmarked for handling waste generated over the next 25 years from 2010 onwards.

The scientific landfill site project has been taken up under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project and 6 acres of land is used in the first phase of six years that started in December 2010. The second phase is of a three-year duration, the third phase six years, and the fourth and final phases together account for 10 years. This plan could come under pressure only if city boundaries grow.

Deputy commissioner N S Channappa Gowda told TOI urban local bodies in Dakshina Kannada district have their landfills. "Barring the Moodbidri town municipal council, landfill sites have been provided at Puttur and Bantwal municipal councils, and Sullia, Belthangady and Mulki town panchayats," he said. The DC said the problem in Moodbidri landfill will be resolved soon. Mangalore City Corporation commissioner K Harish Kumar said 140 of the 200 tonnes received at the compost plant is converted to manure using the win-row system and 25 tonnes using the vermi-composting.