The Kochi Corporation is planning to permit the municipalities in the district to process waste at the solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.

The municipal authorities will have to pay Rs 1000 for a tonne to the Kochi Corporation as processing charges. At present, the Aluva Municipality transports waste materials to Brahmapuram where it is recycled to produce manure.

The Sanitation Mission expects more local bodies in the district to come up with projects for decentralised waste treatment in the wake of enhanced subsidy component by the State government for compost units and biogas plants.

The State government has hiked the subsidy component for various types of compost units to 90 per cent, and biogas plants to 75 per cent. The government subsidy will be routed through the Sanitation Mission.

Around 200 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste needs to be capped

The Suchitwa Mission will assist the Kochi Corporation in scientifically capping waste at the Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant. The plant site is estimated to have around 200 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste. A team of officials from the mission would visit the plant soon, said George Chakkachery, executive director of the mission.

Ernakulam station to receive 20 truckloads of waste daily

Two platforms of Ernakulum Junction Railway Station will be filled with non-biodegradable waste generated by the residents of Kochi. T.K. Ashraf, chairman of the Health Standing Committee of Kochi Corporation, said the Railways sought the waste to fill the two platforms which are under construction.

44 tonnes of granules have piled up at shredding units

Huge quantities of plastic granules remain unutilised in the city as the civic authorities could not get the approval of the Public Works Department for using them for road works. Conversion of plastic refuse into granules was introduced in the city as a method for managing plastic waste. The Kochi Corporation had earlier contracted Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) Kochi chapter for the collection of plastic refuse from the city flats where the agency had initiated a clean city campaign. The plastic thus collected were shredded to granules and stored at the shredding units in the city.

The tourist village of Colva is grappling with the problem of garbage collection and disposal. It’s one of the few coastal villages still facing a ban on multi-dwelling units since the last three years for want of waste disposal mechanism.

Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) report filed in the high court in July this year only showed there’s no improvement at the ground level, with the Board recommending further curbs and restrictions on further development, construction in the village until the implementation of the provisions of Rural Garbage Disposal Scheme, 2005.

Bangalore, the nation’s information technology capital, has entered the second harrowing week of being in threat of drowning in its own garbage because the landfills serving it cannot be used. In the process, the city’s municipal commissioner is being transferred.

The city’s experience offers a lesson to all major urban centres in the country, which will come to grief if they do not follow the right policies. On the other hand, those that have done so like Kanpur and Pune have become role models.

MARGAO: Fomento Green has finally asked the Margao Municipal Council to pay the first installment amounting to Rs 1.30 crore, even as the company is bracing up to conduct trial runs of waste treatment plant at Sonsodo by month end.
The company has dashed off a letter reminding the Civic body to make the payments, which was supposed to be made at the time of signing of the Concession agreement.

Use of plantation land for tourism activities

The ecological impacts of the decision to allow construction of resorts and hotels in plantations will be assessed by the Kerala Forest Department. Minister for Forests K.B. Ganesh Kumar said here that the officials of the department would be asked to look into the possible impacts of the order on forest ecosystems and wildlife. The order was applicable only to private estates and officers stationed near these estates would be put on high alert. Night travel along forest routes to these estates would be regulated.

There is only one such facility, named IMAGE, at Palakkad to handle the biomedical waste generated in hospitals and medical institutions across the State

The Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Limited, which runs a Common Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (CHWTSDF) at Ambalamedu, has submitted a detailed project report to the State government and the State Pollution Control Board seeking approval to set up an incinerator for the treatment and disposal of biomedical waste.