Yogesh K Porwar & Avanth Kumar Kankariya
As a part of environment-friendly initiative, Bengaluru Division of South Western Railway has undertaken Solid Waste Management effectively.
BBMP has classified Railways as bulk generator and has stipulated guidelines for bulk generators to deal with disposal of waste.
The Division handles two types of waste.The Municipal Solid Waste generated in households of Railway colonies and road sweepings and, biomedical waste generated at Railway Hospitals and Health Units.
The division has Muncipal solid waste Management contract in place for disposal of municipal waste.
There are 826 quarters in Bengaluru City,460 quarters in Bengaluru Cantonment and 300 Quarters in Yeshwantpur.
The garbage collected from these houses by the door-to-door collector will be segregated into three different bins placed in the mechanized carrier and transported to the garbage processing center.
Dry waste will be further segregated into bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable waste.
The wet waste and bio-degradable waste will be further processed and sent to vermi-compost centre that are situated in the colonies.
The non-bio-degradable waste will be handed over to authorized BBMP empanelled dry waste collector.
The composting plant in Bengaluru City processes about 40 tonnes of compost per month and the plants at Bengaluru Cantonment and Yeshwantpur 15 tonnes each.
Presently,the compost is being supplied to outside agencies.There is also a proposal to supply the compost to the residents of the colonies.
The vermi-composting plant consist of pits where the segregated degradable waste is moistened with water.
Slurry of cow dung is sprinkled over the waste. The wet mix is given turns once in five days for three to four weeks.
Half kg of earthworms (Endrilus eugeniae, Eisenia fetida,Peronyx excavates) put into tanks.
Earthworms start feeding on the waste mix as they move downwards.After 45 to 60 days final compost product will be collected.
The biomedical waste is segrigated at source as per the guidelines and handed over to the Common Biomedical Waste facility (Medicare Environmental management Pvt. ltd.,Bengaluru designated by Karnataka Pollution Control Board.
