Soon\, micro compost units in your backyard

Tiruchirapall

Soon, micro compost units in your backyard

A worker segregating solid waste at the compost yard in Ariyamangalam zone in Tiruchi on Tuesday.

A worker segregating solid waste at the compost yard in Ariyamangalam zone in Tiruchi on Tuesday.   | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy

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Decentralised SWD has changed profile of garbage collection, process and disposal: civic body chief

Close on the heels of successful implementation of decentralised solid waste management disposal (SWD), Tiruchi Corporation has decided to set up a micro compost yard in every ward in the city.

The first micro compost yard was set up at Pookollai in Ariyamangalam in 2016. Although local residents initially raised a banner of revolt against the yard, they gradually gave up the protests following advances made in processing and disposal of solid waste. The second and third micro compost yards were subsequently set up at Ambedkar Nagar in Srirangam and Birds Road in Cantonment. The facility at Konakarai in Woraiyur became the fourth micro compost yard in the city.

The Corporation has so far established 27 micro compost yards in the city. With the aim of complete curtailment of garbage loads being taken to the Ariyamangalam dump yard — a centralised dump for several years — it has given work order to establish five more yards at Pappakurichi, Marakkadai, Panikkan Street, Panjappur and on Anna Nagar Link Road. Each will cost between ₹50 lakh and ₹60 lakh. With five more facilities, the total number of micro compost yards will rise up to 32. At present, each yard covers garbage generated in about two wards.

However, officials feel the number is highly insufficient in handling the mounting garbage generated in households and commercial establishments.

Corporation Commissioner N. Ravichandran told The Hindu that the city generated about 450 tonnes of waste a day. Until 2016, when the first micro compost yard was set up in the city, the entire waste was transported and dumped at Ariyamgalam dump yard. The decentralised SWD had changed the profile of garbage collection, process and disposal. The micro compost yards functioning at 27 locations in the city were processing about 200 tonnes a day. It meant that it had a capacity to process about 40% of the garbage. But it was not enough. Not even a single load should be transported to Ariyamangalam. It would happen if the city had yards in each and every ward.

Mr. Ravichandran said the Corporation had begun the process of extending the coverage of micro yards in all areas of the city. Officials had been asked to identify the sites for establishing yards at 33 more locations. The process of identifying sites would be completed within a few months.