Waste from Tirupur to fuel cement factory in dist

Tirupur: The non-biodegradable waste generated in the city corporation limits would soon become fuel to a cement factory on the outskirts of Coimbatore.
The city corporation on Monday signed a letter of intent with a Coimbatore-based private cement factory to dispose non-biodegradable waste safely.

The civic body said it would send about 30 metric tonnes of non-biodegradable wastes daily to ACC Cement plant at Madukarai on the outskirts of Coimbatore which would use them as alternative for firewood.

The city generates 480 metric tonnes of sewage waste in 60 wards, of which 216 metric tonnes are biodegradable and 264 metric tonnes, non-biodegradable. The corporation is trying to create awareness among the residents and commercial establishments to segregate wastes generated by them at source. It believes that micro-level segregation would be the best solution to dispose them safely or derive value out of waste.

However, the segregation of waste has been poor at micro-level so far. “With only a few bulk waste producers have taken steps to segregate waste at source, the corporation is struggling to segregate them. Presently, waste is being dumped in unused stone quarries,” said a corporation official, who didn’t want to be named.

“With the corporation now signing letter of intent with the ACC Cement plant, it could send non-biodegradable waste for recycling,” said city health officer K Boopathy.

“A multinational company has signed a contract to dispose waste at the factory. It will use state-of-art technology to dispose them without affecting the environment,” the health officer told TOI.

“Around 48 metric tonnes of plastic waste are generated in a day in the city corporation limits. Sanitary workers could sell high-value plastics and keep the cash, as per the direction given by the commissionerate of municipal administration. Remaining low-value plastics and other non-biodegradable wastes including rubber and glasses would be sent to the plant,” Boopathy said.

Pointing out that about 30 metric tonnes of such waste were generated in the city in a day, the city health officersaid, “Initially, 15 metric tonnes waste will be sent to the cement factory on Thursday and Friday.”