NEW DELHI: South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) is going to start 10 new green waste management centres in the next eight months. The areas under SDMC generate 20-25 metric tonnes of green waste every day. This step will not only reduce burning of leaves — which has been banned by National Green Tribunal — but also result in production of compost, an eco-friendly fertiliser.
Currently, south corporation operates 29 such centres in four administrative zones that are designed to bring down the volume of green waste, which is one of the biggest factors of methane production and frequent fires in the capital’s overflowing landfill sites.
The horticulture department director, Alok Singh, said that the capacity of the existing units is being ramped up to deal with additional green waste generated due to heavy growth of plants and trees during monsoon. He also said, “The project is helping us in scientific disposal and achieving the zero green waste target.”
Earlier, the SDMC commissioner had announced the ambitious target of achieving 100% waste processing status by 2019. The civic body, however, is currently only able to process 60% of green waste generated in areas under its jurisdiction. Also, such waste from many colonies is being directly dumped into landfill sites.
a senior horticulture department official said, “We have almost 6,000 parks under out jurisdiction, the largest number in the capital. A huge amount of green waste is also generated through pruning of trees.”
One of the centres has wood-chipper machines that can reduce large chunks of green waste into smaller chips. This not only helps enhance the pace of composting, but also reduces the volume by almost 10 times. The official explain, “The composting time is reduced to 10-15 days so manure production becomes faster. The number of trucks required to transport green waste reduces and they can be used for carrying solid waste. Lesser trips also mean lesser consumption of fuel by trucks.”
In December, the centres produced over 37 metric tonnes of compost. While the average production hovered between 0.43 and 0.5 tonnes per day between July and November, it doubled during winter to 1.24 tonnes per day.The performance report of the centres shows that compost output peaked during the winter months.
Green waste loses 80-90% of its weight during the composting process by expelling water and carbon dioxide. An official said, “One ton of waste is finally reduced to 70-80 kg of compost. The centres have prevented 10-20 tonnes of green waste from reaching landfill sites every day.”
Source:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
