Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to use biomining method to get rid of the legacy waste, garbage that remain piled up for several years, at Bhuasuni dumpyard here as it would help recover around 60-acre land.
According to sources, BMC has recently issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the mammoth exercise.
“We’ve issued an RFP for biomining of legacy waste at Bhuasuni. The operator is expected to install a plant of the required capacity for the process,” a senior BMC official said.
According to the civic body official, around 16 lakh metric tonne of legacy waste remain pile up at Bhuasuni, on the outskirts of the Capital city. It will take around three years to biomine the waste and reclaim the land.
Biomining is the technique of extraction and segregation of minerals and useful materials from mounds of waste.
The recovered earthy fines can be used for landscaping, gardening or road medians within the City or at the site. Non-recyclable plastic material, on the other hand, shall be used in road construction or as an alternative fuel (refuse derived fuel) in cement plants.
“The heavy fractions like sand and gravel will be used for construction of road shoulders or for plinth filling. Stones and concrete recovered, if any, will be used for road sub-grade or for reuse in the construction industry,” said the official.
“In a bid to achieve the desired target, we’re looking to have a minimum average quantity of 2,000 MT per day. The material retrieved from the legacy waste will be immediately sent to the recycle/identified vendors without hoarding them at site for more than 20 days,” the official added.
Notably, land reclamation is a relatively new approach used to expand municipal solid waste capacity and avoid the high cost of acquiring additional land. Otherwise, once the dumpsite gets filled with garbage, there will be no option other than closing it permanently.
PNN