BMC’s compost fetches good returns in offline, online sales

Bhubaneswar: The city’s waste-turned-manure, ‘Mo Khata’, made in the micro composting centres (MCC)s, has started receiving good response on e-commerce platforms, with 22 packets being sold so far.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had tied up with the e-commerce sites in July. The BMC, which makes compost put of the municipal solid waste generated daily at the MCCs, has been selling it for more than a year now. It has a ‘Mo Khata’ kiosk also, where individual customers buy the manure. It hit upon the idea to sell it online to make the manure’s availability widespread.
“The online sales will slowly pick up pace. The product has proved to be helpful in paddy crops and vegetables,” said BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation) Suvendu Sahu.
The civic body has also registered a remarkable success in offline sale as it so far sold 122 metric tonne of ‘Mo Khata’ out of which 11% has been bought by individuals and remaining by institutions, mostly government. “We have earned Rs 30 lakh and have set a target to sell another Rs 20 lakh by the end of the current financial year,” said Sahu.
In August, BMC had sold 100kg of manure to two star hotels in the city while it sold 36.75 metric tonne of compost, highest consignment at one go, to the sericulture department in Dhenkanal district. The sericulture department had taken 1470 bags of compost for Rs 7.35 lakh.
The BMC now has close to 300 metric tonne of compost stored in its stores at the MCCs. At present, close to 50% of its total municipal waste generated in a day goes to the MCCs and material recovery facilities (MRF)s for processing of waste, while the rest is transported to the dump yard at Daruthenga. At present 34 MCCs and 14 MRFs are operational.
The BMC said ‘Mo Khata’ is a high-quality compost made from wet waste and processed based on a sustainable waste management technique.