A Mangaluru City Corporation proposal for bio-mining of solid waste at its landfill site at Pachchanady to reclaim land for further use is awaiting the approval of the State government, according to Commissioner of the corporation Akshy Sridhar.
Bio-mining is a process involving digging out previously dumped or disposed of material from landfill sites to recover plastic, metal, glass, combustibles, other fine material and soil. Plastic, metals and other material thus recovered can be sent for re-cycling. The bio-degradable waste in a landfill site gets decomposed. When non-biodegradable material in the same site are recovered and sent for re-cycling, the land under them can be reclaimed for further use. With this, there is no need to scout for more land for dumping municipal solid waste.
Municipal solid waste is being dumped at Pachchanady for decades without segregation of waste at source. The need for bio-mining rose after solid waste at the landfill site slipped covering 13.5 acres of private land, including farm land, in the 2019 rainy season. In addition, the civic body is facing the dearth of land for expanding the site.
Bio-mining is estimated to cost about ₹ 17 crore, the Commissioner said.
The dumped solid waste spread over 25 acres, including the 13.5 acres of private land, in Pachchanady is estimated to be six lakh tonnes. Once bio-mining is taken up, it is expected to come down to 2.4 lakh tonnes as the refuse derived fuel (RDF) material (such as plastic recovered) in the site are estimated at 40 %, he said.
An environment engineer in the corporation said that the proposal, revised and sent last month, is now before the Directorate of Municipal Administration. It will have to pass the scrutiny of a State Level Technical Committee.
The ₹ 17 crore cost estimated excludes the transportation of the recovered material in bales. Bales of plastic recovered will have to be transported to cement industries which are at least 700 km away from Mangaluru. It required an additional fund, he said.
Compensation
The Commissioner said that of the 35 families affected due to garbage slipping and that have “pahani”, 19 families have been paid a compensation of nearly ₹ 2 crore for damage to their farm land. Of the remaining 16 families, 13 that have submitted their documents will get ₹ 52 lakh compensation shortly.