Perungudi dumpyard: Amidst pile of trash, a green future

The 191 acre Perungudi landfill, a nauseating pile of trash, may transform into a dense forestor an eco park in five years, if the corporation’s biomining experiment comes through. They are not visible from the road, but the dumpyard has mountains of mud segregated from the landfill, a result of biomining.
Aided with Korean imported machines,high-tech technological solutions, workers are on a mission to reclaim the landfi llfrom the toxic legacy waste.What’s biomining though? “In simple terms, we are roped in toremove the five-metre-highlandfill and give back empty and flat land to the corporation,” says Deepak Patil, Deputy generalmanager, Zigma Global Environ, who is handling the biomining process in 50% ofthe dumpyard.
Patil said they first spray the bio-organic composition over the waste and wait till it loosens. They then make the waste into symmetrical wind rows and cones, for exposure to air and sun-light.
“In a landfi ll,the middle and deeper parts have no exposure to oxygen. So this process will oxygenate the waste and loosen them,” he said.
After 60 days, the loosened waste is weighed and taken to the massive segregation yard in the dumpyard, where plastic, soil, cloth, rubber are separated automatically. The fresh bio-mined soil can be used for parks, gardens and centre median planting if they have an organic carbon contentof above 8%.
"If it’s above 12%, it is goodfor manure too,” according to Patil.
While Zigma processes nearly 50,000cubic metres of waste a month, the other contractor Westart and precision surface communication, who handle the remaining 50% of the dumpyard, say they process about 18,000 cubic metres a month. By this speed, at least 50% of the dumpyard would be landfill free by 2023 as the firm Zigma has completed 40% of the work to reclaim the landfill. However, Perungudi dumpyard still gets 2500 metric tonnes of waste a day, which is half of the city’s waste.
Experts say while it may not be possible to fully get rid of a dumpyard, the future lies in reducing the volume and restricting hazardous waste entering into the landfill. Environmentalist GeoDamin, a member in Tamil Nadu’s solid waste management committee, said the solution lies in putting curbs to production of non-recyclable waste.
“Government needs to ban or increase taxes on non-recyclable wastes such as wrappersand sachets,” he said.
City corporation chief engineer S Rajendiran said they are working on ensuring 1000 metric tonnes of organic wastedoes not go into the dumpyard. “Another plan is to ramp up bio-mining capacity to fasten waste processing. We hope segregation and increasing biomining capacity would be a good combination to keep the volumes in check.”