TRICHY: The
Kumbakonam municipality has retrieved 12 acres of land that had been used to dump
waste for more than four decades.
Waste collected from across municipal area had been dumped in Karikulam
dump yard for all these years.
More than two lakh tonne of waste dumped here had been contaminating the groundwater, and the municipality opted for ‘bio mining’ in September 2015 - a first of its kind greenfield project to achieve 100% recycling of waste dumped all these years.
Private company Zigma Global Environ Solutions was given the responsibly to carry out the work. It completed the task in two and a half years by engaging 110 workers.
“Waste was dug out and subjected to various rounds of segregation. While 15% of the waste was plastic and other combustible material, refuse-derived fuel was supplied to cement factories and other industries. The organic waste has been converted into manure,” said director of Zigma Global Environ Solutions B Dharmaraj.
A centralised compost plant has been erected in a portion of the land where the daily collected waste – around 70 metric tonne -- is processed and recycled.
“The land now resembles a
football ground,” said Kumbakonam municipal commissioner K Uma Maheswari, adding that discussion were on to convert it into a park.
Karikulam dump yard now appears like a 'football ground'.