Mangalore civic body to streamline disposal of organic waste now

MANGALORE: In a move to streamline segregation of waste at source, the Mangalore City Corporation will float separate tenders to collect waste from various eateries. The 1,555 eateries - licensed hotels, canteens, juice centres, fast-food counters and bars and restaurants as well as 590 stalls - non-vegetarian stalls and shops produce over 30 tonnes of organic waste daily.
A major hazard of not segregating this waste at source is that it attracts scavenging animals at the landfill site at Pachchanady. The new arrangement will also use radio frequency identification devices (RFID) to monitor collection of waste using trucks fitted with GPS equipment, MCC commissioner K Harish Kumar told TOI.
Vegetarian and non-vegetarian waste will be collected separately and a user fee levied on owners of eateries and stalls. The civic body, following a recent meeting with owners, assured them it would revert with the proposed user fee. Harish Kumar said the MCC intends to use at least nine vehicles exclusively to collect waste generated from these places and three would exclusively for non-vegetarian waste.
Veg waste will be converted into manure
The vegetarian waste collected in Mangalore will be routed to MCC's vermicomposting plant at Pachchanady, the seven tonnes of non-vegetarian waste may be handed over to a private company from Maharashtra which plans to extract fat and oil from it. "We intend to lease out land near the landfill to the company for up to five years," MCC commissioner K Harish Kumar told TOI.
Vegetable waste from two wards of Mannagudda area will be used locally at the biogas plant there, he said. Similar waste from other wards will land up at the vermicomposting plant with a capacity to process 25 tonnes of waste. The waste collection will be on a no-loss no-profit basis and is in addition to the solid waste management collection the civic body does daily across 60 wards.