Appur landfill’s legacy waste gets a green makeover with biomining drive

The gargantuan task of biomining around six lakh tonnes of legacy waste, accumulated at the Appur landfill over 15 year by Tambaram Corporation has got off to a seemingly excellent start. The Corporation has already biomined one-third of the accumulated water is less than a year of commencement of the project amounting to 36 crores.

Corporation Commissioner S Balachanderunderlines that the project was aimed to scientifically process the accumulated waste and gradually reduce its environmental impact. The project works on the model of collection and segregation, where the total daily waste of 450 tonnes (spread of 85 sq km, covering a population of 10.7 lakh) is collected from transfer points like Kannadapalayam, Visweswarapuram, Thiruneermalai, and Chromepet, before segregation and crushing. Each of these individual transfer points has a capacity of 12 tonnes of waste.

Also Read: New solid waste management rules to come into force from April 1


After the preliminary processing at transfer points the waste then travels through lorries to Appur landfill for biomining. "Every day, vehicles make more than 20 trips to transport waste from the transfer points to the landfill," he said. "We are confident of biomining the remaining legacy waste by this year," he added.

The local response to this project has been mixed. Residents are concerned over poor waste management and irregular door to door waste collection in many localities, as expressed by Pallavaram residents welfare association president, M Gandhi. The commissioner said, "In several areas in Pallavaram and Chromepet, the private contractor does not show up on a regular basis. Waste piles up on the interior roads," the commissioner said.

Also Read: Garbage to gravel: Gadkari pitches for higher utilisation of municipal waste in road construction

"Worse, water bodies such as Pallavaram Periya Eri, Nemilichery Lake, and Ramasamy Chetty Pond have become hotspots for dumping," he added. “Corporation must strictly monitor waste transportation and ensure that garbage is not dumped, especially near lakes and ponds”, he added.

With TOI inputs