Bhubaneswar: Scripting a new chapter in waste management during the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup-2018, the main venue at the Kalinga Stadium Hockey Complex has become a Zero Waste Facility, thanks to a new approach to segregate waste at source and facilitating the composting of biodegradable waste at an ultramodern facility.
The process, which has been adopted for the first time in the state, has become a pilot project that can be followed by others as the state would be organising many other national and international events in future.
GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), an agency from Germany, initiated the project on micro-management of solid waste under the Indo-German Development Cooperation Project on Sustainable Urban Development – Smart Cities.
Under this project, GIZ supported the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup-2018 to make the event a Zero Waste Event.
Along with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Department of Sports and Youth Services (DSYS), GIZ supported the Zero Waste Facility project.
As per the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, any campus that exceeds 5,000 square metres has to install a decentralised processing facility on its premises. So the DSYS also funded the Zero Waste Facility at the Kalinga Stadium.
The facility is operational from the beginning of WCH, and the entire waste is being deposited at the facility after separation into organic and non-organic categories.
At the facility the waste is sorted and segregated manually into recyclable fractions (plastic, paper cup, cardboards and metals) by the informal sector.
GIZ gave them training in the segregation, sorting and stacking of recyclable fractions. The facility also imparts training to rag pickers and sanitary workers.
Along with the recyclable waste, the organic waste is processed through the Organic Waste Converter. The organic waste from .FEST – the Bhubaneswar City Festival – is also processed here.
During the hockey tournament, an estimated one tonne of waste is getting collected at the facility daily. Of this, 30 per cent is organic waste, 25 per cent PET bottles and plastic, 30 per cent paper cups and cardboards, 10 per cent metal and glass and only a mere five per cent are rejects. The BMC has forged a partnership with rag pickers as part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) and the recycling facility that is being planned to be set up under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Coca-Cola partnership of the city corporation.
With linkages for channelising waste from the facility and processing organic waste and with the focussed effort of 10 trained workers at the facility in the Kalinga Stadium, the Zero Waste facility is contributing towards a cleaner environment.
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