Officials To Clear Garbage from Chennai's Largest Toxic Dumpyard

September 18, 2017

Over the years, there have been several attempts to remove the garbage from the dumping site, but to no avail. Officials say the new method is much more efficient than the previous ones.

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Kannadapalayam is a dumping site in Tambaram, Chennai, which gets about 300 tonnes of garbage every day from three municipalities. It can hold only 110 tonnes, hence, the rest of the garbage just piles up.

Since the site has existed for decades, it continuously produces harmful gases like methane from the garbage.

For years, the locals have struggled with the stench and the smoke caused by burning garbage at the site.

There have been several attempts to remove the garbage, cover the dumping site and ban garbage burning, but to no avail.

Picture for representation only. Source: Flickr

However, the National Green Tribunal has now ordered the Tambaram municipality to clear the dump yard. And this time, they will use a new technology – the bio-mining method, which they believe is quite efficient.

Through this popular process used at huge landfills, they hope the land will return to its original form. Nagesh Prabhu, director of Zigma Global Environ, told The New Indian Express that the bio-mining method is a near-zero emission process, using which the dump yard can be cleared as if it never existed.

Speaking about the process, he told the publication that an automatic machine would be used near the dumping site, which will segregate combustible and noncombustible materials.

Then bio-culture will be sprayed for pre-stabilisation, which will help in degrading material that hasn’t been fully biodegraded.

The combustible material will be sent to cement factories to be used as alternate fuel, and the non-combustible material will be dumped again at the site as it can decay easily and maintain the carbon content.

A sanitary inspector told the publication that removing the 1.5 lakh tonne garbage heap from 2.3-acre land will be done within a year. Though the tender has been issued, they’re just waiting to finalise a contractor and will begin the process after.