|
Bhadrachalam: Zero-waste corporate campus
By Tanya Sengupta
Published in toxicslink.org, 05/07/2004
Indian Tobacco Corporation Limited (ITC) has started segregation and
composting of household solid waste at its residential campus housing
at Bhadrachalam, 300 km from Hyderabad city, Andhra Pradesh. This is one
of the few corporate initiatives to turn their campuses into zero waste
units.
Prior to starting its zero waste initiatives, the garbage
(2.3 tonnes/annum) generated by approximately 850 residential units, bachelor
hostel, guesthouse, club, etc, situated on the residential campus was
being dumped at a designated landfill site within the ITC factory premises.
Initiated in 2000 in collaboration with Sukuki–Exnora,
the project promoted segregation of garbage at source. Each household
was given one dustbin having three compartments: one meant for storing
‘dry waste’ (for example, paper and plastics), another for
‘wet waste’ (for instance, vegetables and food waste) and
the last for ‘hazardous waste’ (including dry cells, fused
bulbs). This segregated waste is collected by a team of six “street
beautifiers”, who are on ITC’s rolls. Using specially designed
rickshaws this team evacuates the garbage, collected over the day, to
the Zero Waste Management centre. At the centre, a segregation team of
two employees further minutely segregates the waste. Secondary segregation
done at the centre could be an excellent learning opportunity for others
working in this sector.
The wet garbage is vermi-composted and the manure is
used for maintaining on-campus parks and gardens (though the maintenance
committee has to purchase from external sources too because of high demand).
Secondary segregation at the composting site is meticulously done, taking
care of the nature and composition of each and every item that are discarded
as waste by the residents.
The recyclables are sold and generate an income of
about Rs 6,000 per month. The hazardous waste is buried in concrete lined
safety disposal pits. Thus, with all the solid waste taken care of, the
landfill site has now become redundant and efforts are being made to reclaim
the landfill site land.
The ITC solid waste management initiative is backed
by an extensive public education programme; the residents of the campus
have been told about the benefits of waste segregation.
Besides demonstrating corporate concern for the environment,
the ITC effort also makes a lot of business sense. Garbage is the source
of manure for campus parks while the sale of recyclables generates revenues.
Further, valuable land designated as a landfill site is now available
for alternative land use.
Large corporate residential campuses, by adopting the
zero waste model, can generate returns from garbage which can sustain
the effort required in managing the garbage in such a way as to make the
landfill sites redundant. Other than the monetary rewards, this also boosts
the image/brand equity of the company by demonstrating its commitment
to environmental concerns.
[Post your view on this article]
EXISTING VIEWS
| Sl.No. |
Posted By |
Date |
View |
| 1. |
D. Mohan Rao |
04/04/2007 |
This is a good initative.We have also been doing this in our campus as part of our green and clean initative. However, wet wastes like vegetable cuts/fruit scrapes, etc can be vermicomposted and NOT food wastes as mentioned in your write up. Food wastes are generally dispatched by us to nearby piggeries.We would be happy if you could send us a image of the three compartment collection bin as well as the rickshaws which have been designed and use for garbage collection. |
[Post your view on this article] |
