Compost creates surplus troubles for PMC

With more than 2,000 tonnes of excess, the civic body hopes its ties with Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers will solve the problem

Containing the garbage generated from the city has been a knotty affair for quite some time now. The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) effort to find a veritable solution seems to have hit a roadblock with more than 2,000 tonnes of compost lying idle at city’s depots. The civic body hopes to permanently tie up with the government undertaking company, Rashtriya Chemicals Fertilizers (RCF) to solve problem of compost.According to the PMC’s statistics, garbage depots generate 9,000 tonnes of fertilisers every month from the plants located at Hadapsar. The civic body has continuously appealed to the farmers to pick up composts from these plants. The response to their call wasn’t great leading to surplus compost generation. The PMC has managed to sell a mere 2,000 tonnes till date. With plants located in Aundh, Koregaon Park and Ramtekdi, total of 10 tonnes of compost is created every month.

Sanjay Gawade, assistant munici pal commissioner, said, “The civic body uses its own products as compost in its gardens. Otherwise, we are aggressively marketing the product.Currently, farmers are not buying compost in large quantities.“

The compost is available in two varieties, half-processed and fully-processed. Farmers prefer the former one due to cheap rates.

“The fully processed variety is more expensive, which makes it less popular. The civic administration is already in talks with RCF to sell its product. The company has been given samples,“ Gawade informed.

The RCF will carry out research and suggest measures to make it more useful for farmers. “Standard related to the fertilisers’ ingredients will be set so that its marketing can be done properly,“ he added.

Composting of waste, carried out at the PMC plants, is an aerobic (in the presence of air) method of decomposing solid waste. The process involves decomposition of organic waste into humus known as compost which is a good fertiliser for plants. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At the simplest level, the process of composting simply requires making a heap of wetted organic matter known as green waste (leaves, food waste) and waiting for the materials to break down into humus after a period of weeks or months.

The city generates nearly 1,600 metric tonnes of garbage every day. Of that, nearly 250 tonnes is wet garbage, 850 tonnes dry and 500 tonnes mixed garbage. Civic officials say that of the total garbage generated in the city every day, around 15% is plastic. The quantity is growing daily as the population increases. Processing all the garbage is a big issue due to non-availability of sites in the city.

Source : Mirror