Chandigarh: Bulk generators may have to process waste in-house

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, June 16

Institutions which produce 50 kg of waste per day may have to mandatorily undertake in-house processing.

With an aim to reduce the amount of total wet waste of the city at the bulk generators’ level, the Municipal Corporation has written to the UT Administration to make changes in the solid waste management bylaws. At present, institutions which produce 100 kg of garbage per day are required to do in-house processing.

Those producing 50 kg of garbage on mind

• At present, institutions which produce 100 kg garbage per day are required to do in-house processing
• Institutions which produce 50-kg waste a day may have to mandatorily undertake
• in-house processing

Only 25 institutions are processing waste at their end. According to the MC, all commercial, institutional and multi-storey buildings, and religious and government undertakings are covered under the bulk waste generator category. Chandigarh produces a total of 550 tonne of waste per day. Of this, 350 tonne is wet garbage alone.

What the Municipal Commissioner says

Our aim is to reduce the quantum of wet waste, besides starting a facility for proper wet waste processing. —Anindita Mitra, MC Commissioner

“Our aim is to reduce the quantum of wet waste, besides starting a facility for proper wet waste processing,” said MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra.

The MC chief said in six months, they had raised the garbage-processing capacity from 70 tonne per day to 140 tonne per day and the aim was to raise it to 200 tonne over the next three months.

“Due to better management of the plant after receiving segregated waste and reducing the composting cycle from 45 days to 20 days, we have been able to increase the quantity of processed garbage,” she said.

Estate Officer okays amendments to bylaws

The UT Estate Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner has approved amendments to the building bylaws to make home composting mandatory for 2 kanal houses.

“The Estate Officer has okayed it and now, the Chief Architect will take a call on it. Following this, we will send it to the Administrator for final approval,” said the MC chief.

For promoting home composting, the civic body has distributed two buckets each to 2,000 households in 10 selected wards. Kitchen waste can be put in composting buckets, which have been sponsored by a private agency. After a few days, it will become manure and will be one-third of the total waste. The manure can be used in plants at home. “We have adopted a multi-pronged approach regarding composting. We are also setting up a compost facility at the Sector 39 grain market. We have already set up compost pits in all community centres. The manure generated from there will be used in the community centre gardens only,” she said.