Starts with bacteria culture process for wet waste; electric works pending  

Mysore/Mysuru: Kesare Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling Plant has begun trial run last evening and initially, bacteria culture process has started on the wet waste collected from Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Wards that come under the Narasimharaja Constituency.

From now, the waste generated in the Constituency will be shifted to the state-of-the-art plant at Kesare that will have a total capacity of processing 200 tonnes of waste. The new machines will process 50 tonnes of garbage. However, the electrification works of the plant are pending and this morning, staff from the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) were seen fixing the electricity connections to the machines. 

Built at a cost of Rs. 23.37 crore on an 11-acre land, the Kesare Plant’s strategic location will allow it to manage solid waste from MCC Zone 5, 7, 8 and 9, along with a portion of Zone 6. Several areas, including Rajivnagar, N.R. Mohalla, Azeez Sait Nagar, Shanthinagar, Ghousianagar, Naidu Nagar and nearby areas, will benefit from this initiative.

As of now, over three truckloads of wet waste have been dumped in the plant and the compost conversion process is on. Composting is a natural biological process that converts organic waste into nutrient-rich compost, which can be used as a soil conditioner or fertiliser. This is a process that uses bacteria to break down wet waste in the absence of oxygen.

Once the bacteria culture process begins on the wet waste, it will take over 42 days for the waste to become compost and after the completion of the process, the compost will be powdered and sold in the market.

Officers told Star of Mysore that the Kesare facility has been designed in such a way that it will manage and process solid waste to minimise environmental impact of landfills and dump yards and at the same time, ensure proper disposal.

The process starts with the collection of solid waste from households, commercial establishments and public areas. At the plant, the collected waste will be segregated to separate recyclable materials (such as paper, plastic, glass, and metals) from non-recyclable or hazardous waste.

This segregation helps optimise the treatment and disposal processes and the Pourakarmikas have been trained to segregate the waste properly as the success of this plant hinges on this factor, officials added.

Tenders will have to be called for the full-fledged functioning of the Kesare plant and the company that has bagged the tender will be responsible to maintain the plant. Till the tender process is finalised, the MCC will process the waste, they said.