VIJAYAWADA: To prevent indiscriminate dumping of empty tender coconut shells in dumping yards and sewage channels by the traders, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has come up with a concept of manufacturing coir out of the leftover coconut waste. According to VMC officials, the city generates around 10 tonnes of empty tender coconut shells per day. Over the years, due to lack of mechanism to dispose of them, most of the traders indiscriminately dumped them on roadsides or in sewage channels.
This did not only obstruct the drains’ flow but also helped the mosquitoes to breed. To overcome the problem, Municipal Commissioner J Nivas directed the health department officials to prevent the dumping of shells, as part of Swachh Vijayawada initiative. In this regard, the civic body has installed two first of their kind coconut shredding machines in the State at Wet Waste Management Units at APIIC Colony and Urmila Nagar in the city. The two units are being maintained by Guntur-based Smart Waste Management System (SWMS) since April.
Speaking to TNIE on Wednesday, SWMS managing director Ch Harish said coconut shells are very hard and they take time to disintegrate naturally. But the by-product of the coconut waste is very useful as fertiliser. Coconut coir and coconut peat can be extracted after processing the leftover coconut waste, he said. Around 4 to 5 tonnes of empty tender coconut shells are being segregated in the city per day, and being shifted to wet waste management units at APIIC Colony and Urmila Nagar.
‘’Due to space constraint in the existing units, we are unable to generate a lot of coir from the segregated coconut shells. A proposal has been sent to the civic body seeking its approval to install two more shell shredding machines, one at Excel Plant, Ajith Singh Nagar and another at Kabela. As soon as we get approval, we will shift the tender coconuts to the new units and generate coir out of it,” Harish added.