The Hindu            15.11.2013

Survey of garbage in Adyar to begin

Special Correspondent

As part of efforts to decentralise solid waste management in the city, volunteers of Transparent Chennai, a research organisation, will begin a survey on the composition and generation of garbage in ward 173 of Adyar zone next week.

In the run-up to this pilot project, volunteers of the organisation will start distributing dustbins and garbage bags to residents of the ward from Friday to encourage them to collect various types of waste.

Avni Rastogi, a researcher at Transparent Chennai, said the ward was chosen for the project as it comprises various socio-economic groups, including 12 slums. Some of the areas to be covered include R.K. Mutt Road, Srinivasapuram, and MRC Nagar.

The ward, comprising 14,443 households and 960 commercial establishments, was already mapped during the first phase of the project. “We plan to survey five per cent of the households in the ward. We will collect garbage from 750 households and 50 shops spread over nine days from November 21 onwards,” she said.

This will help volunteers study the type and volume of garbage generated by each resident, and the value of recyclable components of waste. The garbage will be weighed and segregated. On the disposal of collected garbage, Ms. Rastogi said they were working out modalities to hand over recyclable waste to non-governmental organisations.

The team will analyse the data and submit their findings and a proposal for a decentralised solid waste management system, such as a biomethanation plant, and segregation sheds by January to the Chennai Corporation.

“We also plan to develop a tool kit if the civic body wants to adopt the model in other wards,” Ms. Rastogi added.

The Hindu            15.11.2013

Now, power from vegetable waste

Staff Reporter

Corporation to build the first plant at Kavundampalayam.

In an effort aimed at processing degradable waste and also generating power, the Coimbatore Corporation has mooted a proposal to generate power from waste obtained from vegetable markets in the city.

A resolution adopted at the Corporation’s Urgent Council meeting on Thursday said that through the biomethanation process the Corporation would built waste-to-energy plants of various capacities — depending on the quantity of waste generated, which could vary from three to 10 tonnes.

The Corporation would build the plants with its fund or go in for public private partnerships to construct the plants.

On a pilot basis, the Corporation would build the first plant at the proposed vegetable market in Kavundampalayam.

After estimating the quantity of garbage generated at five tonnes, the Corporation had proposed to construct a bio-methanation-cum-power generation plant. It had floated an e-tender on July 18, 2013. As there was only one bidder, the Corporation was forced to cancel the tender and float a second on September 18. The second attempt saw bids from two players. Of those, the Corporation’s tender scrutiny committee had decided to award the tender to a Pune-based engineering company which that quoted Rs. 89 lakh for the construction of the plant and Rs. 72 lakh for a seven-year maintenance period.

The Council approved of the resolution.

Similarly, it also decided to seek expression of interest from companies for process plastic waste. A resolution adopted in this regard said that to explore the possibilities of processing the plastic waste to manufacture other products, the Corporation would like to invite companies with the necessary technologies. It was imperative to do so because the segregated collection of waste in Ward 23 had yielded plastic waste that could be processed.

Plus, as the Corporation was about to extend the segregated collection system under the Shunya zero waste management scheme, there was every possibility that the quantity of plastics so collected would go up.

Along with the two waste management proposals, the Corporation also decided to seek the State Government’s administrative sanction for the 24X7 water supply scheme, handover roads to the State Highways Department for constructed of road-over bridges and accept the bids for constructing a foot-over bridge near the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital junction.