Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) is going to operate Pakistan’s state of the art compost plant in Lahore today (Friday), which is being considered as a step forward in environmental sustainability.
The compost pant will be inaugurated near Mehmood Booti area which is also dumping site of waste which is being collected by the LWMC.
Prior to this, in 2006 when Mian Amir was the mayor, the city district government, Lahore in partnership with Lahore Compost (Private) limited put efforts to run compost plant at the same venue. At that time, a plant was installed by Saif Group Company which had been operating in the field of environment management.
An official in the LWMC told Pakistan Today that Saif Group bought its plant from Belgium and had to transform around 1000 tonnes of the garbage into 250 tonnes organic fertilizer every day. This plant had been functional for a couple of years but it later stopped functioning due to best known reasons.
The official said that the LWMC had bought the plant including its machinery and decided to functionalise the plant using its own resources.
Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic materials, such as leaves, grass, food scraps and other municipal wastes, by microorganisms. The result of this decomposition process is compost, a crumbly, earthy-smelling, soil-like material. The composition of solid waste found in various counties and cities varies considerably. More than two-third of the municipal solid waste produced in the United States is compostable material. Composting can greatly reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills or incinerators. Items such as fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, tea bags, fireplace ash, leaves, grass, yard clippings, vacuum cleaner lint, wool and cotton rags, sawdust, non-recyclable paper, etc can be put in the composting bin.
Many countries in the world prefer to utilise their organic waste in such a beneficial way but in Pakistan, the governments have always been reluctant to encourage compost plants.
The LWMC which was established as a subsidiary of the city district government under section of Companies Ordinance 1984 on March 2010 through an agreement Services and Asset Management Agreement (SAAMA). The LWMC further outsourced its operation to two Turk-based companies, Albayrak and Ozpak through an open bidding in 2012.
These both companies are collecting at least 5600 tons waste daily from the different parts of the city.
LWMC Managing Director Syed Bilal Mustafa, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that the LWMC had taken over the compost plant installed by Saif Group in September this year. “LWMC have revamped the plant to get into the functional condition. The organic content present in household and other waste will be converted to compost through a process of two to three months”, he added.
Environmental expert and LWMC Chairman Ahmad Rafay Alam, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that the LWMC had been dumping thousands of tonnes of waste daily to keep the city clean. “LWMC management which is aimed to work on international parameters, so it decided to take over the already closed plant present at dumping site of Mehmood Booti to get it operational”, he said, adding that for this effort the management of LWMC did an appreciating job.
Rafay further said, “Initially the LWMC has made short term policy to operate this plant for which it will gradually increase its production up to 80 per cent by April 2017.
Talking about the advantages of compost plant, Rafay informed that compost improved the soil in many ways as it helped loosen the compaction of heavy soils.
“It helps sandy soils trap and hold water. When mixed with soil, compost functions like a sponge, holding water where the roots need it most and hence reducing the amount of irrigation a crop needs, he said, adding that composting adds nutrients and fosters the growth of beneficial microorganisms, insects and earthworms while it also helps minimise wind and water erosion both by holding onto moisture in the soil and by encouraging healthy root growth.
Rafay also said that this state of the art plant will help improve the air quality of the city.
