Dry waste processing: Civic body seeks bids from international companies

Mumbai civic body has earmarked six locations in the city that will be given to the selected firm for setting up a processing unit.

Soon, Mumbaiites can log on to a mobile application to get their dry waste collected, processed and dumped. As part of its mega plan to streamline the collection and processing of 800 to 1,000 tonnes of dry waste generated daily, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has recently written to the consulates of seven countries for inviting Expression Of Interest (EOI) from entities of these countries to collect, transport, process and dispose of dry waste generated in the city.

The Mumbai civic body aims to send minimal waste to dumping grounds and stop the dumping in our landfills like Deonar that are anticipated to soon run out of space (HT file photo)

The civic body has also earmarked six locations in the city — Colaba, Bandra, Kandivli, Malvani, Ghatkopar and Deonar — which will be given to the selected firm for setting up a processing unit. The BMC has written to the consulates of United States of America, Germany, Finland, France, Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom.

With this plan set to start, the civic body aims to send minimal waste to dumping grounds and stop the dumping in our landfills like Deonar that are anticipated to soon run out of space. Private entities from any of these countries will have to develop an app and a website to promote dry-waste segregation where citizens can approach them to collect waste. One of the conditions of the EOI states that of the total dry waste collected and processed, only three percent residue should be dumped in the landfills by the bidders.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of A ward and solid waste management, said, “The selected firm for this plan will have to set up Material Recovery Facility, a machine that will segregate and process dry waste, at the decided locations. The unit needs to have a processing capacity of 100-250 metric tonnes a day.” The city generates 7,200 metric tonnes of waste on a daily basis, of which nearly 11% is estimated to be dry waste.

For entities to qualify for the waste-processing plan, the BMC has set several parameters like financial capacity of the agency, experience in handling dry waste segregation centres, technology proposed, collection and transportation mechanism and presentation of work-execution plan. An internal committee of the BMC will assess the entities and mark them on the given parameters respectively.

At present, there are 36 dry waste segregation centres in the city. After segregation at the source (households) the waste is transported to these centres where it is further segregated by the rag pickers appointed by the BMC. The segregated product is then sold to scrap dealers.