COIMBATORE: Around 150 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste is being sent to cement factories in Ariyalur district on a daily basis from the Vellalore dump yard.
With a total of 100 wards in five zones of the city, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has been collecting around 1,000 tonnes of garbage every day on average. The waste collected across the city, biodegradable and non-biodegradable, is taken to the dump yard at Vellalore in dump trucks.
As the waste is mixed and dumped in piles, the garbage starts producing methane gas, causing frequent fire accidents in the dump yard. In view of this, the waste dumped at Vellalore is segregated by the sanitary workers. Also, to reduce the garbage pile, a portion of biodegradable waste is sent to Micro Compost Centres (MCC) established across the city, including Ukkadam and Ondipudur, for processing and manure making.
With several MCCs not functioning due to various reasons, the garbage pile at the Vellalore dump yard has been increasing every day. Meanwhile, several lakh metric tonnes of garbage had not been cleared on 66 acres of land at the Vellalore dump yard for the past 10 years.
Considering this, action has been taken by the CCMC to eradicate it through bio-mining process. As a result, around 16 acres of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste have been cleared. Works are being carried out in full swing to clear the remaining piles of waste, said the officials.
As part of clearing the garbage from the dump yard, around 150 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste is being sent to private cement industries in the Ariyalur to fuel the manufacturing plants. With waste being sent to the cement factories, the garbage pile will be reduced, added the sources.