Zero-Waste to Landfills in Pune by 2015

Pune aims to become a zero-landfill city by 2015. With a range of solid waste management options like localised biogas plants and composting facilities, and policies that encourage door-to-door waste collection and segregation, the target does not seem too ambitious. However, the city municipal corporation needs to ensure it does not fall into the trap of easy answers as it seeks to enhance its waste processing capacity. Read the full article @ Down to Earth

115,000 MT of Waste Generated in India, Every Day

The 600-square metre compound that shares its boundary with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) ward office in Aundh, an affluent suburb, gives no sign of what happens inside. Strollers cheerfully walk past it. Behind its green steel gates is the city’s cleanest weapon to fight garbage. The five-tonne per day (TPD) biogas plant silently operates all day decomposing organic waste—vegetables, fruit rejects and stale food—and converting them into methane. The gas is injected into a generator to produce electricity. The leftover is excellent organic manure. Yet, passers-by have nothing to complain. There is no stench around; no flies or eagles hovering above food. Life goes on, the way it would with any other commercial compound there.

Composting Wet Waste in the House

The plant is Pune’s experiment to ensure that no waste goes to the city’s landfills. “The aim is to make the 244-sq km municipal area zero-landfill by 2015,” says Sanjay Gawade, additional commissioner, municipal solid waste, PMC. Pune generates about 400 grams of solid waste per person per day. The 2011 Census puts the city’s population at about 3.5 million. Another 0.5 million come into the city every day. This translates into 1,400 to 1,600 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day, say PMC officials. Of this, 65 per per cent per cent comes from residences, hotels and restaurants (see ‘Waste contributors’). Wet waste accounts for about 70 per cent.