Thane Municipal Corporation to manage waste for societies lacking infrastructure

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has finally decided to provide some relief to Thanekars, who were tasked with managing waste on their own. The civic body is set to acquire 18 mobile and stationary organic waste converters (OWC) to process waste on the spot and send the same to the Daighar Solid Waste Management (SWM) plant. The provision is meant only for those societies that are unable to manage waste.

"And, the first stationary OWC will be fitted at the Hiranandani estate by the end of this month," Manish Joshi, deputy commissioner TMC, SWM said.

The mobile OWC has the capacity of five tonnes each, and the mobile OWC has a higher capacity of 1 tonne each. Two remaining stationary OWCs will be set up at bigger housing complexes in Thane, which is yet to be decided.

The decision to get these OWCs came following a public outcry when the TMC asked societies measuring 5,000 square metres and above which generate more than 100 kilograms of waste daily, to manage the waste produced by themselves. The societies had complained that they do not have the manpower nor the technical know-how to process garbage. They said did not have an adequate place in their compounds to set up an SWM plant.

"This will solve the problems for societies that do not have a place or the technical knowledge to perform SWM. We will charge them for processing the waste, but those who are capable should do their own SWM," he said.

The OWCs will process 30 tonnes of waste in a day, which will then be forwarded to the TMC's SWM plant in Daighar. The plant, in its first phase, will produce energy/electricity from 600 kg of waste daily. It will be functional in the next one year. Thane generates 650 tonnes of garbage daily and the Daighar plant will further increase its capacity to 600 tonnes in its second phase.