TIRUPPUR: Officials from the Tiruppur municipal administration department have decided to set up a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) centre on the borders of Tiruppur, Coimbatore, to segregate waste as social activists have been opposing the dumping of garbage in stone quarries.
Tiruppur corporation has 60 wards and about 700 to 800 tonnes of garbage is collected daily from them. Out of this 160 tonnes of waste is sent to Micro Composting Centres (MCC) everyday and others are being dumped in an abandoned stone quarry in Pongupalayam village. However, the locals and social activists have been opposing this, blaming the corporation for it and alleging it is causing environmental issues.
R Sathish Kumar, state secretary of the Legal Awareness Wing of Tamil Nadu Farmers Protection Association also filed a case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT-Southern Zone) against the dumping of garbage in a stone quarry in Pongupalayam.
He said, “The case related to this came up for hearing on December 2 in the NGT. The tribunal then ordered the district collector and the TN Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to inspect the quarry and take steps to remove the garbage dumped there and file a report on the steps taken.”
Hence the corporation also considered alternative plans for solid waste management and sent recommendations to the government in this regard. In this context, the municipal administration department planned to set up an MRF centre soon.
A senior official from the Tiruppur Corporation, said, “The corporation also does not want to continue dumping garbage in the stone quarries. However, it will take some time. We are currently taking steps to increase MCCs for this. Currently, there are 41 MCCs in the Corporation. A Bio-CNG plant has been sanctioned for Tiruppur to handle 200 metric tonnes of biodegradable waste daily. It will be operational in six months. Apart from this, the state government has also planned to soon set up an MRF centre on the border of Tiruppur, Coimbatore, and another centre for Madurai as well.”
The official added, “Garbage from Tiruppur and Coimbatore Corporations will be sent here and segregated. Segregating garbage makes it easier to manage. It will accept waste, whether it is segregated or mixed. Further, it will separate them and will process and store them for later use as raw materials for remanufacturing, reusing, and reprocessing. Preliminary work for this is currently underway. A private company is carrying out these works and they are looking for around 100 acres of land to set up this centre. This will be a solution to the solid waste management issues in Tiruppur.”
Tiruppur Corporation Commissioner S Ramamoorthy told TNIE, “A Detailed Project Report (DPR) in this regard will be prepared soon. Only after that, it will be known under which fund this centre will be implemented. We have not received the full details yet.”