Erode Corporation’s second waste incineration plant to be operational in two months

After the successful commissioning of an incineration plant at Vairapalayam for disposal of non-biodegradable waste, the Corporation has begun to install the second plant, that is expected to be functional in two months.

The total spread area of the corporation is 108 sq km and the population as per Census 2011 is 4,98,121 in all the 60 wards. About 148.70 tonnes solid waste is generated in the city of which 60 tonnes is dry waste. As part of its plan to create a ‘zero percent garbage city’, the civic body removed dustbins in public places and improved door-to-door garbage collection in residential and commercial areas. Also, micro compost centres were established at 19 places while bio-mining of legacy waste at Vairapalayam and Vendipalayam were completed at ₹ 37.25 crore.

Over 40% of the dry waste, including plastic, generated every day in the city needs to be processed and hence the civic body established a 25 TPD incineration plant at Vairapalayam at a cost of ₹ 1.60 crore. Trial run began recently and the plant was fully operational from November 28, 2022.

A Corporation engineer told  The Hindu that the plant has the capacity to burn non-biodegradable waste at 1,000 degrees Celsius producing pure carbon ash which is not harmful to the environment. Also, the end product which is ash can be used in manufacturing bricks, the official added. Segregated waste is transported to the plant and is converted into ash.

The civic body proposed to install another 25 MTD capacity plant on the same premises and Consent to Operate (CoP) clearance was obtained from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board recently. “We have received the machines and installation work has begun”, the engineer said and added that the plant will be functional in two months. After commissioning of the second plant, dry waste generated in the corporation will be processed and the city will excel in scientific handling of waste, the official added.