E-Paper
Pune civic body to start country’s first sanitary waste processing unit in August
The plant has a capacity to process around 4 to 4.5 tonnes of sanitary waste daily, said PMC officials
Sanitary waste disposal has become an increasing problem in India due to the plastic used in disposable sanitary napkins being non-biodegradable leading to health and environmental hazards. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will be the first civic body in the country to start processing sanitary waste in August.
The sanitary waste processing unit has been set up at the campus of Rochem Separations Systems Pvt Ltd, Hadapsar. The unit has been set up free of cost by Procter and Gamble Company on the land allotted by PMC. The plant has a capacity to process around 4 to 4.5 tonnes of sanitary waste daily, said PMC officials.
A tri-party agreement has been signed. As per the agreement, the plant will be run by the private company for a period of three years. After evaluating the functioning of the plant for three years, based on the performance an extension of seven years will be given to the private players. During the extension period the civic body will further provide water and electricity for the plant, said PMC officials.
Asha Raut, deputy municipal commissioner and head of PMC solid waste management department said, “The project has been approved by the standing committee and we are the first municipal body in the country which collects the sanitary waste separately. The plant will dispose waste scientifically and will function from August first week. The sanitary waste picked will be sent to the plant directly for processing.”
Currently, the city generates around four tonnes of sanitary waste which includes sanitary napkins and diapers. As per the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2016, soiled napkins, diapers, condoms, tampons are considered household waste and should be disposed after segregation into biodegradable and non-biodegradable components.
An engineer from the PMC solid waste department requesting anonymity said that the plant is ready and the fine-tuning trials will be conducted to check the functioning and pollution norms of the plant. “This is the first of its kind plant in the country. The machinery for the plant is sourced from Italy. To make the plant functional we need consent from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), however, since this is the country’s first unit, they have asked us to approach the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The approval will be given by CPCB after assessment of the plant.”
“This is a pilot project and the trial run will begin from next week. Given the increasing availability, use and waste load of non-biodegradable menstrual products and lack of systems for appropriate disposal, the PMC gave priority for sanitary waste management of the city,” added Raut.
Red Dot campaign
The PMC, since 2017, under its “Red Dot” campaign collects sanitary waste separately. Volunteers and staff of the solid waste department request people to securely wrap their sanitary waste in a newspaper and mark it with a red dot. PMC has set up small-scale incinerators for disposing used sanitary pads. Around 600 to 700 kilograms of sanitary waste is disposed of using the incinerators and remaining 3.5 tonnes of sanitary waste is processed along with dry waste by PMC.
