The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which has been hauled up by the
National Green Tribunal for not processing the city’s solid waste, has decided to
set up waste processing units in a portion of Dhapa, near the present waste
dumping site.
About 4,000 tonne of solid waste are generated in the city every day but only
525 tonne are processed. The 4,000-odd tonne do not include construction and
demolition waste. A 500-tonne-per-day capacity processing plant for
construction and demolition waste has been set up in New Town by the KMC.
According to Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, the civic body should dump
only inert waste like dust and silt in the waste dumping ground or landfill site.
But in reality, the bulk of the solid waste collected from the city is dumped at
the Dhapa waste disposal site.
Processing of solid waste means segregating various kinds of waste and using
them as raw materials in the production cycle of various industries. For
example, food waste can be used to produce manure or bio-CNG that can be
used as fuel for vehicles. Plastic can be reused in the production cycle in cement
plants or to make new plastic products.
Being the largest municipal corporation in Bengal, the KMC is sitting over a
huge volume of untreated or unprocessed waste.
