Carbon credit won’t let fund spent on garbage go waste

Now that the plants are operational and enable energy generation from waste,he said the PMC is looking to recover its investment.

The biodegradable waste is treated and used for generating energy through mechanical composting,vermi-composting and biogas at plants across the city that has a total processing capacity of 1,362 tonnes per day. “The operation and maintenance cost of waste processing plants requires heavy investment that the local civic bodies are reluctant to make. The PMC is keen on meeting the cost of the projects. Generating carbon credits are a potential solution,” Jagtap said.

Each of the projects have the potential to be considered as individual as well as bundled carbon credit projects,he said,adding that the PMC has proposed to apply for availing carbon credit under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) or through other voluntary trading channel.

“The estimate is that the projects would enable PMC get around one lakh carbon credits and the civic body would get monetary benefit from it for ten years. This will ensure the investment is recovered,” he added.

The PMC is scouting for an agency that would take up the job of registering the projects for carbon credits and compile its data for ten years,Jagtap said. The benefit would be shared with the agency,he added.