Solid waste Management
The practices for waste management being adopted in the State are as follows:
Bio waste
In line with the decentralised approach, homestead based composting through compost pits or bio bins is the most favoured means of management of bio waste. Community based structures like windrow plants, vermicomposting units, biogas plants have also come up in many places. Recently the State is working with Central undertakings like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) for setting up large bio Compressed Natural/Bio Gas Plants that can cater to a large portion of municipal solid waste.
Non bio waste
Door to door collection in both households and institutions through the promotion of localised entrepreneurial network called Haritha Karma Sena is insisted upon. There are over 36000 Haritha Karma Sena, sourced largely from the Kudumbashree network that work in all the gram panchayats and urban local governments of the State. The waste is segregated and stored in material collection facilities at the LSG level and further segregated, shredded and baled in resource recovery facilities at the Block Panchayat or Municipal levels. Forward linkages are provided by the Clean Kerala Company Ltd, an undertaking promoted by the State government, or any other such agency with tie up with processing units and cement factories.
Special waste
Institutional biomedical waste is handled by IMAGE, working with the Health department. Domestic hazardous waste, sanitary waste, chicken waste, bio waste going to pig farms, slaughter waste, hair waste, electronic waste, construction and demolition waste are some of the special categories of waste for which the State is attempting to find specific end to end solutions to be handled by the local governments. The Suchitwa mission is active in providing the policy and technical framework for waste management of all categories of waste.
