New dump for a third of city’s waste

Chennai: About one-third of the city's 6,000tonnes of waste will soon be transported to the suburbs in Vengadamangalam after Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) completes biomining the remaining 90acres of Perungudi dumpyard. This decision follows protests by residents of North Chennai against GCC's inital plan to transport and dispose of South Chennai's waste at the incineration plant in Kodungaiyur.
Although biomining of more than 50% of legacy waste is complete at the Perungudi dumpyard, GCC still dumps 3,000tonnes of waste there daily in different spots, particularly along the 200-feet Radial Road. The move to shift waste to Vengadamangalam near Ponmar will help vacate the marshland entirely, allowing it to heal as a water body again.
GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran said South Chennai's non-recyclable waste will be sent to the upcoming incineration plant in Vengadamangalam. "We will set up bio-CNG plants, micro-composting centres, and windrow composting centres in Perungudi and Sholinganallur," he said. Of the 3,000 tonnes of total waste in South Chennai, about 1,000 tonnes is wet waste. The Tambaram Corporation currently operates a 50-acre dumpyard in Vengadamangalam in Kancheepuram district, which is about 20km away from Perungudi. In the recent state budget, the Tamil Nadu govt proposed a waste-to-energy incineration plant in the area. The plant will start with a 400 tonne capacity and will be scaled up.
The corporation is planning to construct more decentralised resource recovery centres in six zones - Kodambakkam, Valsaravakkam, Alandur, Adyar, Perungudi, and Sholinganallur - for GCC to temporarily dump waste. From these centres, 500-tonne capacity tipper lorries will operate during the night to shift the waste to Vengadamangalam. Officials stated that transportation will not occur in the morning.
Experts criticized the call to transport waste to an area 25km away, instead of enforcing segregation and plastic bans. "Incineration is the easy way out. After protests against dumping in North Chennai, they have identifed another area outside the city. The focus should be on household segregation, banning non-recyclable items like single use plastic, and setting up decentralised recycling centres, Geo Damin, a solid waste management expert and former member of the TN govt's SWM committee.