Project to clean Pune earns Adar Poonawalla place in Forbes list

Pune generates at least 1,700 tonnes of waste per day, out of which 800-850 tonnes is wet waste. “What the movement has done is to scientifically collect, transport and process organic waste in an environmentally sustainable manner,” Poonawalla told The Indian Express.

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Krishnan Komandur, CEO of the movement, said that 40 per cent of the 800-850 tonnes of wet food waste would get processed in the first phase.

“We want to clear at least 300 kms of road running through PMC limits in this phase and have deployed 111 equipment. Manpower of 200 will be required for the project,” he added.

The initiative aims at removing organic food waste at source and diverting it for scientific processing. The rest of the inorganic waste will be diverted to the Pune Municipal Corporation’s seven transfer stations and then into recycling plants. It targets to segregate and process 300-350 tonnes of wet food waste and convert it into bio fuel and organic manure.

So in a year, over one lakh tonnes of wet food waste will get processed. Removal of wet waste for a year will save 542 tonnes of carbon emission by fuel replacement, Poonawalla said. Accordingly, 55,080 tonnes of garbage has been taken care of in the past seven months.

Plan to provide drinking water

Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, is working on a project that involves providing two to three million litres of water to the city, daily.
“We have plans to get sewage water treated and use it for drinking, cooking and washing purposes,” he said.

“This water will be useful specially during summer months in case of a drought,” Poonawalla added.