Biomining of 50% of legacy waste at Brahmapuram completed, claims firm

Biomining of 50% of legacy waste at the Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant has been completed, claimed officials of the Pune-based Bhumi Green Energy, the company entrusted with the job by the Kochi Corporation.

The entire project will be completed by April 2025, they said. Waste remains buried at a depth of up to three-and-a-half metres. Out of this, 50%, which comes to around 2 lakh metric tonnes, has been excavated and treated. The rest would be excavated and scientifically treated by next April.

Mayor M. Anilkumar claimed that mountains of plastic waste over the surface of the ground had been completely removed. That not a single fire breakout had been reported at Brahmapuram in the past one year denoted the successful handling of legacy waste, he said after visiting the plant on Saturday. The plant witnessed a devastating fire on plastic heaps that lasted almost a fortnight last year.

Bhumi Green Energy started biomining of legacy waste on January 15. According to a survey conducted by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, the plant accounted for around 8.40 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste. Of that, 4.10 lakh metric tonnes have been stabilised, thus ensuring that there is no discharge of gases like methane. This has also done away with the potential for fire breakouts.

Non-recyclable waste segregated through biomining is being diverted for cement production. Such waste is being shifted as refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which is used by cement factories. So far, 1,360 loads measuring 41,504 metric tonnes of RDF have been ferried to various cement factories across the country. Around 15 loads of RDF are being dispatched from Brahmapuram on a daily basis, said company sources.

Out of the 4.10 lakh metric tonnes of stabilised legacy waste, 2.93 lakh metric tonnes have been treated and segregated. At present, the machinery deployed at the plant has the capacity to handle 3,000 metric tonnes of waste a day. The machines are fit to be operated even during the monsoon, said company sources.