WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN KERALA ANSHUL YADAV MANGESH

WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN KERALA ANSHUL YADAV MANGESH BHENDALE ROHIT GARG

BIO-TRIGGER WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

ABOUT the bio-trigger system �The year 2007 witnessed a major overhaul in the whole garbage disposal system in Kochi. �To address the problem of garbage disposal in residential colonies with focus on health, hygiene and safety in high rise apartments, CREDAI Kochi decided to implement an eco-friendly solid waste management system. �CREDAI- Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India, apex body of private Real Estate developers representing 11500 Members spread across 23 State level Chapters and 166 City level Chapters. �The action on a trial basis started in 2007 in a few apartment complexes.

HOW IS IT DONE? �Eco-friendly waste management technique uses the aerobic microbial composting system for solid waste management. �Microbial solution is sprayed on the garbage to initiate the Bio-trigger mechanism �It takes 10 -15 days to convert garbage into decomposed organic manure. �The system was progressively introduced in other apartment complexes as well. �Approximately 20% of the bio-degradable waste in Kochi is being treated at the source itself.

IMPLEMENTATION � Two buckets – one for the degradable waste like garbage and the other for the non-degradable waste like plastic – were provided. �A Plastic Shredding Unit at Ravipuram was constructed by the Corporation of Kochi and CREDAI Kochi. Plastic collected from the apartments are shredded and stored for using it along with bitumen for polymerized tarring of roads in the Corporation of Kochi. �CREDAI Kochi has donated a shredding machine for the project. �The technology to use shredded plastic for tarring the roads has been given by Bharat Petroleum.

Challenges And Remedies �To overcome the initial reluctance and achieve certain level of acceptance, a campaign was initiated for housewives by way of audio-visual presentations in the complexes. � It required a lot of follow-up to convince housewives who were not used to segregating the waste. � It took them a long way to convince people about the efficacy of the system. �Besides this, because of the rule that the apartment will not get complementary certificates unless garbage system is installed, new flats which have come up have started implementing the concept. �It has now become a compulsion to follow the rule because it ensures costing at the source and not when it is processed at the source as it doesn’t involve any cost in terms of collecting, transporting and processing.

Who is making investment on the human resource and maintenance? �The new system evolved got great support from the Corporation. � Builders are making investments as Residential Associations have also become conscious about the concept. Who is providing the microbial solution? �Approved service provider certified by the government of Kerala for the Clean Kerala Mission. He procures the solution from Mumbai and supplies to them. �Promotion of an NGO on the Teraclean system, which has a product manager and a supervisor with other people employed as a part of the team. This helps to provide employment to rural woman on a daily basis between 10 am and 3 pm with a salary package of `3500 -4000, depending upon the number of flats.

Are those workers associated with an NGO? �Workers are employed by residential associations �Supervisors and executives who are employed by them visit apartment complexes as per stipulated schedules. �Project executives and auditors to monitor whether the system is working properly and if there any complaints. �The system is taken care of by women and has been perfected and streamlined by a series of trials and errors. �The housewives segregate waste and municipality has to take it from there, thus consuming less time.

Outcomes �The natural bio-degradation happens and the garbage turns into useful organic fertilizer. �Approximately 20% of the bio-degradable waste in Kochi is being treated at the source itself. �Almost 70% of apartments are covered by this scheme as of now in urban Kochi. �Plastic collected were stored for using it along with bitumen for polymerized tarring of roads in the Corporation of Kochi. �The plastic when used for tarring helps in enhancing the life of roads.

OUTCOMES �Shredded plastic has been utilized for road tarring on Manappatti Parambu road, Kaloor and Manimala road, Edappally. �These roads bears the distinction of first polymerized road tarring done in Kerala. �In retrospect, the system have almost covered 230 apartment complexes in and around Trivandrum, Calicut, Trichur, and Kochi. The Kochi Corporation is saving almost 2 crore per annum because of this.

BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

ABOUT BIO-MEDICAL WASTES �Classification of Hospital Wastes� Wastes which are supposedly harmless Packing materials, kitchen wastes, garbage and other domestic types of wastes and can safely go into the municipal waste system. �Wastes which can transmit infection Pathological wastes(tissues & body parts), Waste human blood and products of blood, Sharps used in patient care, Wastes from autopsy, Discarded medical equipment etc. Probable health hazards from these wastes can be the transmission of the following diseases like, AIDS, hepatitis B, most common bacterial infections including cholera, dysentery etc.

EARLIER SCENARIO �The quantity of infectious wastes produced per bed, per day was reckoned at 2 kg. Thus, the hospitals in the state generated more than 260 tonnes of infectious wastes every day or 95, 000 tonnes annually. �The clinical wastes were being fed into the municipal wastes system by almost all the government and private hospitals, doctor’s consulting rooms, clinics and laboratories till 2003. �Waste disposal systems were woefully inadequate or nonexistent in most hospitals. The dangerous wastes dumped into landfills next to the hospitals resulted in land ground water pollution. �The health care workers in the hospitals were often inadequately protected because of the lack of appropriate protective clothing and equipment.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY �Providing incinerators to each and every hospital is unrealistic both economically and ecologically. �Project “IMAGE” – IMA Goes Eco-friendly was initiated in 2000 to assist Government and Private Hospitals in Kerala to manage and dispose the hazardous wastes. �Continuous correspondence with the managements of all hospitals in Kerala was initiated. Meetings were organized all over Kerala by IMA through which the need for proper waste management was promoted. �The plan was to start five Central Waste Management Plants in Kerala – two acres of lands for each with an incinerator, autoclave, shredder, and an effluent treatment plant.

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY contd… �The first site was located near Kanjikode, Palakkad. �Training programs for Hospitals in Waste Segregation was started. Colour Bags and Bins were supplied to all hospitals with necessary instructions, posters. �Hospitals were requested to provide needle destroyers in all necessary locations. �A private organization, GJ Multiclave was selected for collection of wastes and the operation of the Plant. �This was planned as a common facility for the entire State and a Co-operative Project where the hospitals will have to pay an Affiliation Fee and a per bed per day fee for waste collection and disposal.

CHALLENGES FACED �Plot was purchased in Parippally near Kollam and the proposal was approved by Kerala State PCB. But due to the opposition from local people, it had to be shelved. The same happened to the plans in Kannur. �Environmentalists bringing experts from as far as USA against incineration, enemy organizations advising ‘better’ treatment plants, etc �But IMAGE survived and is making a huge net profit for IMA apart from undertaking a useful activity.

OUTCOMES �The estimate for such a Project was `1 crore to start with including the cost of the land, building, Incinerator, Autoclave, Shredder, ETP etc. This was to cater to >10, 000 beds. Thus the Affiliation fee was decided as `1000 per bed and the treatment charges at `3. 50 per bed per day. �With the initiative of the IMA and the PCB, several hospitals were made to join the project. �From the present data available from IMAGE reports, it shows that only about 60% of the hospitals, etc. are affiliated to IMAGE. Only a couple of hospitals have their own waste treatment plants. �While IMAGE has been a success to the extent to which it has been implemented, there is need to take it further, to spread awareness about the need for bio-medical waste management.

THANK YOU!