News
From one mega wasteful project to another Japanese garbage plan
Despite the failure of the Central Environment Authority’s multi-billion rupee ‘Pilisaru’ national solid waste management project, the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils is again planning to launch a similar project, experts on waste management claim.
Last Friday, Minister Faiszer Mustapha said in Parliament that there are plans to begin kawashima Japanese composting methods at provincial levels. He said soon all nine provinces will have a composting machine under the kawashima method.
The Research Centre for Social Science, in a study of the Rs. 5.6 billion Pilasaru project of the CEA launched in January 2008, said it failed to tackle the 2,000 metric tons of waste collected in the Western Province.
It is understood that the composting machines given to local authorities and councils could only deal with up to 25 kilograms of solid waste.
The RCSS consisting of professors from the University of Kelaniya and the Kotalawela Defence Academy, said the Japan International Cooperation Agency project is also doomed as it cannot deal with garbage in the Western Province.
The kawashima machines have a capacity of 50MT of waste per day and will be inadequate to handle the 800 MT of Colombo garbage.
However, the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils is upbeat on the Rs 880 million kawashima composting programme, claiming that a pilot project at Kundasale was a success.
The line ministry claims that under the new technique, composting a kilogram of garbage would cost only Rs. 6 and need minimum manpower and thus less operational expenses. “We hope to submit a cabinet paper soon, for approval,’’ the director of solid waste management, Athula Illangasinghe said.
CEA Deputy Director General, Solid Waste Management, I.M.U. Indraratne said the Pilasaru project failed because of a lack of manpower and land to dump garbage.
He said that the Municipal Councils were not cooperating and were also irresponsible in the collection process. They failed to separate the garbage.
“It is important to separate the garbage at the collection point for composting,’’ he said.
The Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils last year by a circular dated 01.12.2016 directed that all municipal councils and local government authorities separate garbage at collection points.
One hundred composting machines distributed to local authorities under the Pilasaru project have not been used.
Around 8,000 MT of solid waste are collected countrywide. Of this 3,600 MT are short-term biodegradables and can be turned into compost if properly separated.
Another 1,200 MT are recyclable – but only 180 MT get recycled. The rest get thrown into open dumps or burnt.
The Western Province produces 2,000 MT of garbage a day and the disposal sites are limited.
Illangasinghe stressed the need for hi-tech processing to manage the waste. Sanitary landfills will be ideal, he said.
The RCSS said the hurdles can be overcome with a novel technique, the ERS, a rapid waste management technique popular in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia.
Project Director and Business Consultant, Jude Fernando, explained that the ERS is a high speed, aerobic composting and drying system that can operate 24 hours a day. Also waste is converted to value added products including organic fertiliser, animal feed and raw materials for biomass power generation.
The automated process needs less manpower and can be operated on four perches of land using a combination of eco-friendly microbes in the soil. The processing is independent of weather conditions, and solid, liquid, animal and human waste and even septic tank sludge can be processed. The capacity could be adjusted according to requirements and ranges from 250 kgs to 100 tons a day.
The RCSS believes the ERS technique can be an income generating venture and can be run by local governments without government financial support.