From wastage to wattage: Organic waste-to-energy processing centre opens in South Mumbai

As the mercury zoomed in a show of strength just before an early afternoon deluge a small group of people including a posse of policemen gathered on a pavement at Haji AliMahalaxmiProcess planThe lsquoDrsquo ward got an organic wastetoenergy processing centre developed by AeroCare Clean Energy which has been set up very close to the Haji AliTardeo RTO in the same line as the Willingdon Club gates This waste processing centre will in a nutshell process wet waste which is essentially food waste and convert it to electricity which will be used by the civic authorities for public lighting in the areasColour and consciousness The outside of the facilityAt the inauguration on Friday late morning Minister of Environment and Tourism Aditya Thackeray and mayor Kishori Pednekar were explained the workings of how this is going to be processed by AeroCare Clean Energy Chief Executive Officer CEO Ankit Zaveri even as lsquoDrsquo ward Assistant Municipal Commissioner Prashant Gaikwad walked in At a time when there are concerns about a possible third wave and people are inundated by bad news this was an upbeat looked forward to eventOutbreak awarenessThere has been a great uptick in cleanliness consciousness and waste management largely because the pandemic has meant we change priorities The inauguration timing then was apt even though police personnel had to remind people sporadically to keep distancing at the venue Said Zaveri ldquoWe are delighted to be part of government push to embrace cleaner forms of energy The organic waste collected from bull waste generators BWG in the area hotels restaurants large housing societies hospitals will be processed at our centre to generate electricity which will be used to light up the garden area aroundrdquoZaveri added ldquoThere has been a great emphasis on reducing plastic recycling which is good but what about food waste which is essentially the wet waste that we all generate every dayrdquo Decentralisation was the buzzword and Zaveri explained such centres were first steps to moving towards decentralising waste management and treatment ldquoCurrently we are looking at within lsquoDrsquo ward where big residential societies hotels and restaurants that generate waste more than 100 kg a day have their waste collected and then it is brought here to be converted to clean energy This is only the beginning we want to eventually progress to a stage where these players actually process the waste on site they are taught how to and that then is brought here to be converted to energy Currently though we are taking things one at a timerdquoLess burdenGaikwad too pressed the lsquodecentralisationrsquo button The assistant municipal commissioner said ldquoIt is important to decentralise the process of waste management and treatment so that we reduce the load on the Kanjur dumping ground Ideally this should be done in every ward we have 24 wards If such a facility is in every ward then we have roughly a reduction of 50 tonnes of waste being reduced daily at the dumping ground which is very significant This impacts other areas too We will save money Even vehicles will not have to make so many trips to the landfill which means you are cutting emissions Look at the manypronged advantages decentralisation will bringrdquoAs the leaders departed authorities and clean energy advocates claimed that catchphrases like zero waste to landfill sound good but are meaningful only when practised ldquoby all at ground level Environmental awareness is not some esoteric concept and domain of a few but the responsibility of everyone These projects bring that awareness right to the doorsteprdquo signed off ZaveriInauguration spreeIn the runup to the civic elections next year cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray has been on an inauguration spree After launching several vaccine camps across the city the minister who holds environment tourism and protocol portfolios has inaugurated three BMC projects in the past two days While he launched the Mahim beach revamp on Thursday a viewing gallery work at Girgaon Chowpatty was inaugurated by him on Friday along with a wastetoenergy plant The viewing gallery will come up at the northern end of Girgaon Chowpatty in the lsquoDrsquo ward Civic officials said it will offer a ldquounique and captivatingrdquo view of the sea and Marine Drive