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Chandigarh MC to set up city’s first plastic waste processing plant
The Chandigarh municipal corporation has decided to set up a plastic waste processing plant in the city; to decide the model and learn from experience of other cities, a high-level MC team led by MC commissioner Anindita Mitra is visiting different places which already have such a facility
The Chandigarh municipal corporation has decided to set up a plastic waste processing plant in the city.
To decide the model and learn from experience of other cities, a high-level MC team led by MC commissioner Anindita Mitra is visiting different places which already have plastic processing plants. The team on Tuesday visited one of such facility in Surat and on Wednesday, it is due to visit Ahmedabad. The plant will process all the plastic waste being generated in the city after it is collected by MC during door-to-door collection of garbage.
Mitra said, “We want to process different types of waste generated in the city in dedicated facilities, so that collected segregated waste is not dumped together at the dumping ground or sent to the solid waste processing plant.”
“For a relatively smaller city like Chandigarh, the size of these plants is relatively smaller and costs are also low. This will enable MC to tackle all kinds of waste,” said Mitra.
MC is examining the model to be followed. It can lease out the land, while cost of setting up the plant, its running and recycling of generated products will be with the company setting up the plant. MC can also opt to run the plant on its own. “We also have to see what is the market for the multiple recycled products generated in these plants in Chandigarh,” said Mitra.
The cost of the plant will be calculated once the MC finalises the model. Though, a timeline has not been fixed as yet for the setting up of the plant, MC officials said by year-end plant is likely to get concrete shape.
Team to visit horticulture waste processing plant in Mumbai
MC has also decided to set up city’s first horticulture waste processing plant, with the tendering process expected to begin next month. The team will also visit a similar facility in Mumbai.
The horticulture plant will solve the perennial problem of the horticulture waste generated from residential areas, sector parks (maintained by the resident welfare associations) and even those maintained by the administration and the MC.
The city generates, on average, 7 to 8 tonnes of horticulture waste per day. This increases exponentially during autumn and spring when trees shed their leaves, when it can reach to over 80 tonnes per day.
The plant will be set up over an area of 1.5 acre at 3BRD, within the premises of the existing sewerage treatment plant site belonging to MC. The project will cost around ₹3.5 crore, including construction of a boundary wall and shed for plants, and is likely to start in July-end.
A part of the plant will be shredder to cut the horticulture waste into small pieces. Then, moisture will be removed from the waste, followed by making small ingots with hydraulic press. These ingots, which is pure wood fibre, will be sold. “These by-products of processing can be sold at around ₹17 per kg,” said an MC official.
“We will be soon awarding the work for legacy mining at the Dadumajra dumping ground, and the process to set up new solid waste processing plant is also going on. We need to have waste segregated and then different facilities to process waste other than dry and wet waste. So, all type of waste is processed,” said Mitra.
Notably, nearly 60% of the 5 lakh MT of legacy waste has been removed in the first phase of legacy mining at Dadumajra dump site. For the clean-up of 7.5 lakh MT the work is likely to be awarded in a fortnight.
