New apartments may have to do composting

Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is planning to make it mandatory for all new residential apartments to set up composting machinery or else building permissions will not be issued.

Speaking to the The Hans India, Anjaneyalu, (OSD) Commissioner, Sanitation Wing, GHMC, said, "The matter has been discussed at a meeting to make mandatory the construction of composting machine in gated community buildings and residential apartments."

Last year, the GHMC provided compost bins to gated communities and apartments, self-help groups under Swachh Survekshan and wrote a letter to all the people who are considered as bulk garbage generators (BGG) to purchase compost bins to make compost from wet waste.

To encourage the people who are considered as BGG to buy compost bins, GHMC installed stalls of compost bins. Hotel owners, bakery owners and others who generate more than 25 kg of garbage every day have to acquire the compost bins for their establishments. A compost machine costs Rs 1,000. They come in a pair as one pack.

Explaining the process of making compost from wet waste, the GHMC official said that wet waste should be dumped in first bin and microbes would be included in the wet waste. After a month, they would turn the waste into manure which could be used for gardening.