The Hindu            29.10.2013

Udupi to launch waste segregation scheme

In its bid to make Udupi a litter-free city, the Udupi
City Municipal Council (CMC) will be introducing waste segregation at
source in 3,500 houses shortly.

The city generates
about 55 tonnes of garbage daily. Now, there is a provision of
door-to-door collection of waste in the city. There are about 32,000
households in the city and door-to-door waste collection is being done
in 70 per cent of these houses. The waste is being collected by
self-help groups (SHGs). A fee of Rs. 30 per house per month is charged.

Waste
from the remaining 30 per cent of houses is not being collected as they
are scattered, while some residents dispose the garbage in their own
gardens. The garbage collected is being disposed of at the solid waste
management plant, located on 22 acres of land at Karvalu in Alevoor
about 8 km from the city.

To promote waste
segregation at source, the CMC has decided to select 100 houses in each
of the 35 municipal wards in the city. These houses would be given two
buckets – of green and red colours. Wet waste will be collected in green
buckets while dry waste (minus plastic waste) will be collected in red
buckets. The capacity of both these buckets will be 16 litres.

According
to M.K. Subrahmanya, Environment Engineer at Udupi CMC, the CMC would
undertake an awareness programme in all the 3,500 houses and the
residents would be told how to segregate waste in the green and red
buckets.

Vermi-compost Plant

In
the initial phase, waste from these houses would be collected under the
present mechanism. A Rs. 27-lakh vermin-compost plant of the CMC would
become operational at Alevoor in two months and would require at least
two tonnes of wet waste per day.

The CMC would be printing handbills to inform the targeted households about the scheme.

“We
will involve councillors and go to every house and tell people about
this scheme. We will also form local committees with councillors to
monitor the scheme. Some SHGs, which are not performing effectively,
will be told to pull up their socks,” said P. Yuvaraj, president of
Udupi CMC.

Two biomethanation plants

Later,
the CMC plans to extend the waste-segregation scheme to all houses in
the city. When the waste segregation is extended to all houses, the wet
waste collected would be used for two biomethanation plants, each
requiring two tonnes of wet waste. The State government had given its
nod for the two biomethanation plants, each expected to cost Rs. 34
lakh.

Methane generated will be passed into a
generator, which will produce 15 kV of power per day. A separate power
line will be drawn from this generator and the power generated will be
used to light 60 street lamps.

“One plant will come up in Beedinagudde; we are yet to identify the area for the second plant,” Mr. Subrahmanya said.

Plastic waste

In
addition, the CMC intends to tell people to keep plastic waste separate
from dry waste. “The plastic waste would be collected once a week. This
would make the process of segregation easier. It may take a year to
make the entire city litter-free,” said K. Srikanth Rao, CMC
Commissioner.

However, a CMC official said that it
would have been better if two municipal wards were chosen for the
segregation scheme instead of 3,500 houses spread across 35 wards as it
would be easier to transport the waste.

We
will involve councillors and go to every house and tell people about
this scheme. We will also form local committees with municipal
councillors to monitor the scheme

P. Yuvaraj, President, Udupi CMC.