Deccan Chronicle       29.06.2010

Meet generates 200 tonnes of trash

June 28: The five-day world classical Tamil conference that ended Sunday saw nearly 200 tonnes of garbage being generated.

For the Coimbatore corporation, the challenge was to showcase the city in all its glory. It had put in place a garbage disposal system to achieve this objective, along with a host of other measures. “We did not want to expose the delegates to any health hazards,” said a corporation official. By Monday, most of the garbage had been cleared, but work was on to give the Codissia venue a cleaner look.

For five days, the civic body staff worked overtime to ensure that about 40 tonnes of garbage collected every day was disposed of properly by night. Though litter bins were placed at many points at the venue, several visitors ignored them.

The civic body’s commissioner, Anshul Mishra, said that the waste was disposed of at Vellalur. About 400 workers were deployed around the venue and other vantage points to ensure that there was no pile up of garbage. Plates, cups, papers, food waste, plastic bottles and flowers formed most of the garbage. These were collected in bio-bags.

Since the city does not have a recycling facility, unsegregated municipal waste was collected and dumped in a yard specifically created for it.

“We will be scientifically closing the dump yard with the help of liners formed out of geotextiles and clay. First, we will lay the liners and then garbage will be dumped on that. When it is full, we will cover it with gravel, sand, clay and geotextiles so that the waste does not seep into the earth and harm the environment,” said Mr Mishra.

With funds from the Tamil Manadu Health and Sanitation fund, the area has been cleaned and the garbage collected in Peelamedu by the corporation is being taken to the yard by UPA VIVL, a public private partnership.