MADURAI: In a bid to improve wet waste management in Madurai, the city corporation has ramped up efforts to boost operations at the city’s 30 functional micro-composting centres (MCCs). The civic body is now aiming to increase its daily wet waste processing capacity from the existing 40-50 tonnes to around 90 tonnes.
Madurai generates an estimated 850-900 tonnes of waste every day, of which more than 60% is wet waste. A portion of this wet waste is processed at the MCCs, while the rest is transported to the Vellakkal dumping yard. Although the city has 38 MCCs in total, only 30 are currently operational, with the remaining eight centres inactive due to electricity and other technical issues.
Each MCC has a daily processing capacity of 5 tons, making the combined processing potential of the 30 functional centres 150 tonnes. However, until recently, most centres were operating below capacity, processing less than one tonne per day each.
Corporation officials said that additional manpower has now been deployed to each MCC to improve their performance.
“Currently, each centre is processing more than one tonne of waste daily, and some MCCs near key locations, like markers, are handling up to 3-5 tonnes,” said a senior official. The corporation plans to gradually scale up operations to utilise the MCCs to their full capacity. However, concerns remain about waste management in certain high-waste zones.
N Chinnamayan, president of the Mattuthavani Central Market All Traders Association, highlighted the issue at the central market.
“The market generates several tonnes of vegetable and fruit waste every day. Although an MCC exists within the market premises, it remains underutilised by the corporation. Waste often piles up uncollected, attracting stray and cattle and causing sanitation problems,” he said, urging swift action from the authorities.