Noida to make compost out of STP sludge and horticulture waste

The Noida Authority on Saturday said that it has decided to make biogas and compost out of sludge produced at sewage treatment plants in the city.

Noida authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari has given in-principle approval to the project.

The authority will use the compost turner to chop the horticulture waste, mix it with sludge and make compost, a process that will take 45 days. Once operational, the plant will produce at least 50 tonnes of compost daily that will be used in the city’s parks and also sold at a rate of ₹3-5 per kg, said officials.

According to the Noida authority’s data, the city produces 231 million litres of sewage daily. In the absence of this compost making project, the authority has to use the sludge in earth filling or dump it at vacant plots, which is not only polluting but unhygienic as well.

In the first phase, the authority will use sludge from its sector 54 sewage treatment plant (STP).

“We are in the process of hiring the agency that will set up the at the sector 54 STP. Later, the compost making project will cover all our STPs located in sectors 50, 123 and 168,” said Rajiv Tyag,i general manager of the Noida authority.

The first plant is expected to be made operational in the next six months and is estimated to cost ₹9 crore. It will be built on the lines of a similar project in Delhi’s Nilothi area. The authority is also seeking the details from the Delhi’s plant before it starts work at the ground.

This is not the first time that the authority has decided to treat sludge to convert sludge from STPs into compost. A similar project was mooted in 2013-14, but never took off.

The authority has total six STPs across the city with capacities of 34 million litres per day (MLD) and 25MLD in sector 50, 33MLD and 54MLD in sector 54, 35MLD in sector 123 and 50MLD in sector 168.