Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started filling up low-lying landfill sites with heaps of branches and tree parts breaking and falling off during nor’westers, heavy rain and wind.BMC officials said such waste, after shredding, is taken to Kalarahanga and Patrapada for landfill. Land voids and low-lying places have been identified in these two areas so that the bulk of green wastes can be dumped. Like other variety of green waste (vegetable waste), this can’t be processed into manure or briquette making.“We have dedicated vehicles to transport such waste in case of sudden events of high wind or heavy rain. The tree branches that fall on roads are cleared immediately. Earlier, we didn’t have landfill facility and we used to trip the leaves and take them to manure-making units called micro composting centres, where green vegetable waste is also mixed with it and processed into manure,” said BMC deputy commissioner N Ganesh Babu.In leaf-shedding, monsoon and pruning seasons also, green waste is generated from public spaces as well as from residential areas. “The collected green waste are being taken to the crusher unit for reducing it into small pieces before finally transporting for landfilling. But in raw state also, green waste is directly transported to landfill site,” Babu said.Civic officials said since the green leaves have nitrogen, it easily dries up in sunlight. If there is no stagnant water at the landfill site, it won’t get decomposed. The waste gradually becomes solid and hence, land-filling purpose is served ultimately, Babu said.Under the new waste-handling project, remnants of cabbage, cauliflower and other biodegradable vegetable waste generated in city markets, haats and by bulk waste generators are now collected and channelled for scientific processing. Around 50 tonnes of vegetable waste per day is made available for conversion into compressed natural gas, subject to seasonal variation. BMC had earlier signed an MoU with a private party that takes up the 50-tonne-capacity waste-to-CNG plant.
