Waste Management

Waste Management (2009) 74 - 80

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Small town Solid Waste Management: A case study of Siruguppa, Karnataka 1

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B.Abdul Rahman* , G. Mehboob Sab and Chanakya HN 1 Senior Health Inspector, Siruguppa (currently posted to Bellary City Corporation) 2 CEO, Town Municipal Council Siruguppa, Karnataka 3 Principal Scientist, CST, IISc, Bangalore

Article Info.

ABSTRACT

Article History: Received in August 2009

Siruguppa is a small town of population 52,000 with 10,366 families, 132km total road length and a 16tpd solid waste production capacity. In 2003, the Government of Karnataka, with the help of IDeCK planned a solid waste management plan complying with SWM Rules 2000. The treatment system comprised of a small biomethanation plant of 1.5tpd which was run on a pilot basis. The SWM plan also included IEC activities and processing of wastes for local use. A biomethanation plant was built with technology from ASTRA, IISc with dissemination support of TIDE, Bangalore. Simultaneously, IEC activities were taken up to ensure people’s participation and motivation. All solid wastes are collected on a daily basis and brought to the treatment yard where after a secondary sorting to remove non-fermentable materials, about 1.52.5tpd of fermentables are fed to the biomethanation plant. A significant part of the plastics are separated and sent for recycling. The biogas generated is flared. The digested residue is further processed to make vermin-compost that is used in-house in all gardening in Siruguppa town. The plant has now been in operation for nearly 6 years and has not shown any operation problems. The streets in town are now clean and litter-free. There are hardly any instances of blocked drains strewn with USW and storm-water as well as other wastewater has been flowing without impedance and hence very little health problems. There is very little unused or untreated waste in the treatment yard all of which reflect a reasonably healthy situation. There have been instances of lowered people’s participation and hence constant IEC activities have been found necessary to ensure constant and high level of people’s participation. In the beginning, there were administrative difficulties in involving private parties in the use of outputs from the treatment plant. However, today, there is attempt to involve an entrepreneur to use the gas for power generation for internal use. Through this, it is possible to meet costs of solid waste treatment at the plant although not the total waste management of the entire town. However, it is a sustainable model for other small towns to emulate and manage. © 2009 Oxford Publishing House. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction Siruguppa is a town of 52,000 population situated about 60km north of Bellary town in Central Karnataka. It has about 132km of road network spread in town of 2

32km area. In 2003, the Government of Karnataka, with planning assistance of Infrastructure Development Corporation of Karnataka (IDeCK) planned for a SWM plan to comply with SWM Rules 2000 for this town. It comprised of various inputs such as IEC, upgradation of collection system, setting up of a treatment yard and landfill site. . * Corresponding Author:

The treatment system comprised of a 1.5 tpd biomethanation pilot set up with technology assistance from Centre for Application of Science and Technology (ASTRA, currently called Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) and implementation support from Technology, Informatics and Design Endeavour (TIDE, Bangalore). As there was no history of household level segregation of USW, an attempt was made to temporarily segregate the wastes after receipt of the treatment site itself. It was envisaged that when the town begins to comply completely with SWM Rules in due course, the fermentables received as segregated form from households will be directly fed to this plant. During the commissioning and handholding, several trials were

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made by TIDE to use the gas in various ways that could result in a net revenue accrual to the civic body. After completion of the handholding in 2003, the plant has been in continuous operation ever since. Although, the plant was designed for a 1.5tpd of segregated material, there have been several occasions, due to various local events, the extent of fermentable material has exceeded the available limit of 1.5t. Up to 2.5tpd has been fed to the plant for periods up to 1 week without serious deleterious effects. Baseline status and IEC activities Around 2004 and 2005 IEC activities were taken up to ensure participation of all stakeholders. A lot of IEC material and programs were taken up and the message of SWM, source segregation, users duties and rights, etc. were propagated using IEC material supplied by DMA as well as that created here. Figure 1 shows some of the activities taken up on a town wide basis to ensure users participation. Figure 2 shows the general status of the streets and SWM prior to the project.

Primary collection and training Subsequently, various improved collection equipment were procured and the existing permanent and temporary staff were trained in its proper use. Several training programs and hand holding efforts ensured that everyone in the system was inspired to take up the new system in earnest. The general types of collection equipment deployed are presented in Figure 3. These consist mainly of push carts, two bins in the push carts as well as mechanized equipments to take away as secondary collection from the primary collection sources. A total of 16t of solid wastes are collected today from all the segments of the city.

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Figure 1. Several modes of IEC activities were taken up to ensure participation of stakeholders during the initial and intermediate IEC programs.

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Figure 2. Status of SWM in Siruguppa town before taking up the project. Notice the large number of stray animal consuming wastes, defecation and other litter on the streets.

Figure 3. Various equipment deployed for SWM collection, in-house training operations carried out at Siruguppa to ensure proper collection and enabling personal safety to operators.

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Primary collection and training Repeat Segment Subsequently, various improved collection equipment were procured and the existing permanent and temporary staff were trained in its proper use. Several training programs and hand holding efforts ensured that everyone in the system was inspired to take up the new system in earnest. The general types of collection equipment deployed are presented in Figure 3. These consist mainly of push carts, two bins in the push carts as well as mechanized equipment to take away as secondary collection from the primary collection sources. A total of 16t of solid wastes are collected today from all the segments of the city.

Table 1: City Statistics: a. Area b. Population Density c. Total number of households d. Waste Generated e. Road length

: : : : :

31.14 sq.km 1,664.4 10,366 16 tonnes per day 132.49 km

Table 2: Annual Expenditure on SWM : 1. Salary : Rs. 17.04 Lakhs 2. Contracts : Rs. 10.00 Lakhs 3. Fuel charges : Rs. 01.80 Lakhs 4. O & M of existing vehicles : Rs. 00.70 Lakhs 5. Cost per ton of waste : Rs. 197 (One hundred & ninety seven) 6. Total : Rs. 29.54 Lakhs

Treatment and disposal

Figure 4. Top a 0.5tpd X 3 modules biomethanation facility at Siraguppa town. The technology uses ASTRA-CSTs 3zone fermentation technique that can use unprocessed USW directly (bottom left) which is pushed into the plant manually (bottom centre). The gas production has Treatment and disposal:

A schematic diagram of the proposed project is presented in Figure 5.

The treatment processes comprise of an initial receiving yard where incoming wastes are placed and spread to grossly separate the decomposables and nondecomposables. The decomposables are recovered and fed into the biomethanation plant up to a total weight of 1.5tpd. However, on festivals and other market days, a larger quantity of fermentable USW fraction is collected. This is also fed to the plant manually (Figure 4). The 3

resulting gas production, usually 60m /t generally increases with partially dry feedstock. When higher levels of USW are fed, it results in a higher level of biogas production. As there are no mechanisms for complete biogas use locally, most of it are flared on a daily basis. After a long trial period of nearly six years, it is now planned to run a small power plant for local uses. It is envisaged that the power generated will be used for yard lighting, welcome signages and minor local uses.

Table 3: Performance and Impact of the use of biomethanation plant, i. Has continuously worked from 2003 ii. Takes in about 1.5tpd occasionally fed up to 2.5tpd without overload iii. All fermentable recovered and land-fill space, storage space reduced iv. Gas flared during this trial period v. Has the potential to accept another 1.5tpd fermentable (new reactor needed) vi. There are no cattle, goats or sheep in the yard vii. USW is no longer attractive to stray animals, flies and mosquitoes. viii. City and Yard kept clean due to absence of non-recyclables ix. >90% reduction in drain blockages

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Figure 6. Proposed utility for methane generated from USW at Siraguppa. One ton of USW can produce between 6090kWh of electricity. Currently with 1.5tpd the expected output is about 90-120kWh. Fresh USW twice the current capacity is available at Siraguppa.

Figure 6. Biomethanation plant showing use of biogas. Initial segregation results in removal of LDPE packets (top centre) and glass and plastic bottles (top right). The digested material removed from the biogas plant is kept moist for a couple of days for volatilization of ammonia (bottom left) then fed to vermin-compost pits (bottom centre) and the harvested vermin-compost is stacked in sacks for later use (bottom right).

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Use of digested residues and value addition

Conclusion

The digested residue is recovered from the digester daily or four times a week depending upon labour vailability. About 30-45% of the added weight is recovered as digested compost. The digested compost is then allowed to decompose and stabilize further by vermin-composting. Typical stone trough method of vermicompost is taken up at Siraguppa. The vermicompost pits are covered in dry season to protect from desiccation. The vermicompost produced has been used on all the gardens and potted plants maintained by the Sirguppa municipality. The annual value of vermincompost produced is about 3.94lakhs. This in itself is capable of paying for the wages of the labour employed in the processing and operation of the biomethanation vermin-composting plant. Details are presented in Figure 6.

Siruguppa is perhaps the only small city in India that has continuously run a biomethanation plant for treating USW for a period of nearly six years. Although, the gas has not been effectively utilized due to the pilot nature of the effort, the exercise clearly demonstrates the potential for small town to effectively operate and run efficiently waste treatment plants at under 20tpd capacity. In addition to being economic in the long run, there is potential to use the gas effectively for power generation or as CNG for collection vehicles. The ability of the system to reduce the extent of wastes to be landfilled is enormous. In addition, the near complete recycling of materials and conversion by biomethanation allows a very clean treatment area with very little attraction to stray animals and insects. Apart from processing of wastes, Siruguppa town has had the unique lessons of become very clean in a short period. Some of the lessons learnt are as follows. 1. Drain clogging problem has reduced by 90%, there by the sewage or storm water has continuous flow preventing from floating and odor problem in spite of the fact that the town is not yet provided with UGD system. 2. With 100% door to door waste collection, street sweeping has been greatly reduced. 3. Regular awareness program is still needed to effective and sustained SWM system. 4. The town needs to have a proper planning of debris management and cleaning of open areas. 5. Users charges needs to be collected from the very beginning of the process otherwise people will refuse to pay later on

Table 4. The salient features about the Siruguppa Solid Waste Management Site are: 3

i.

Biomethanation plant (90m ) to treat 1.5t segregated organic waste daily.

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Vermi-composting pits converting providing value addition to digested residue.

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Temporary storage facilities for segregated inorganic wastes and recyclable materials.

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Bore well with electric pump set.

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Permanent shed for storing processed vermicompost and accessories.

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Permanent fencing for the entire disposal site.

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Cement channel to drain excess storm water from landfill.

viii.

Trenches for landfilling.

ix.

Biogas-Alternator for using the methane gas (under implementation)

Acknowledgements Support provided by IDeCK and TIDE at the initial stages has been very instrumental in proper start-up and maintenance of the initial tempo for a clean city. Constant encouragement and support of the elected members has also been very helpful. DMA (GoK) and CMAK have also provided vital support for effective running of this project. All these are gratefully acknowledged.

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