Gold from Garbage

A trip to Mumbai in 1993 settled that issue. Contrasting the clean burroughs of New York with the squalor and dirt of Mumbai, he realised that there was a massive potential in waste management and the demand would only rise as the creaking waste disposal system was gradually overwhelmed and submerged under Mumbai8217;s daily output of around 6,000 tons of MSW Municipal Solid Waste. Mehta returned the same year, equipped with the latest organic waste conversion technology, bought from an American company for 2,50,000 dollars. Confidently, he rang BMC8217;s doorbell8230; and kept ringing on it till the realisation dawned that the bell does not work! Mehta had not factored in one point government lethargy. He ran into the classic bureaucratic don8217;t call us, we will call you8217; routine. quot;BMC officials showed interest in the project but no interest in converting that interest into actuals!quot; muses Mehta. Trips, meetings andpresentations to committees, sub-committees, BMC engineers8230; followed in rapid series, but Mehta consistently drew a blank. quot;I kept pounding on their doors, but the only thing they had to say was, We are looking into the matter8217;!quot;. Also, problems cropped up on the language front Mehta and his Made in USA twang were met with uncomprehending looks. With his atrociously horrible Hindi and non-existent Marathi he was finally forced to avail the services of an interpreter! But on the positive side after a prolonged interface with BMC, Mehta can now speak Marathi!

And then, in April 1997, BMC looked beyond the matter. After trial runs at Tarapore, Mehta was granted permission to set up two waste management plants at a cost of Rs 30 crores at Deonar and at Gorai. Both plants, which are under construction, can process 1,500 tons of MSW every day, and will recruit 40 ragpickers or quot;sortersquot;, as Mehta prefers to call them. The conversion process will rival that at any high tech plant.

The method: wastefrom all over the city is deodarised, disinfected and then dumped on a tipping floor8217;. quot;We use negative airflow to bring down the pathogen levels,quot; says Mehta. From there, conveyor belts take it through a magnetic field to sort out iron-based waste and on to a waterline, so that plastic waste floats and can be sorted out easily. The sorters take the inorganic waste to recycling plants and as an added incentive, pocket the earnings. But the inorganic waste is forwarded to a compacter, where water is squeezed out and then it goes through a crushing house on to the main process plant, where the contamination levels and NPK Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium values are determined. The data is logged into a computer and the amount of nutrients to be added to make quot;customised fertilisersquot; are computed. Next on the line is the reactor plant, where the fertiliser is generated, and from there on to the dryer and the bagging plant. Long-winded though it may sound, the entire process takes around 45 minutes, as againstthe standard composting methods which require 45 days. 50 per cent of MSW can be converted into fertilisers, and profits will come from it8217;s sale. Though the picture looks rosy, there is a black line around this silver cloud. While in USA the government pays a tipping charge to waste management agencies, here Mehta will have to pay BMC a royalty on the waste! quot;This is how we function. You have to pay them to help them solve their problems!quot; he says. Other difference exist when it comes to public awareness. quot;There, organic and inorganic waste is sorted at the source the home and the factory. But here we get mixed garbage,quot; adds Mehta. And the dumping ground is hardly ever disinfected or sterilised, invariably generating methane fires and epidemics.

But despite all the roadblocks, the experience has been invigorating for Mehta. He is already busy with his next project portable chemical toilets, called Porta-Johns. But without government initiatives and public pressure, that project might just prove to be awasted effort.