Mumbai: In the backdrop of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) attempts to implement waste segregation in the city, Juhu’s Cooper Hospital has become the first municipal hospital to produce manure with a vermicompost processing plant by segregating wet waste.
Started in October 2016, the plant is already yielding results by treating 100-150 kg of wet waste every day. The monthly manure production is about 4.5 metric tonne.
According to civic officials, Cooper Hospital and the neighbouring Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College together produce a lot of green waste. The natural waste in the canteen, which caters to both the hospital and the college and prepares meals for 2,000 people every day, was being sent to dumping grounds earlier.
The BMC has decided to set up a vermi-compost plant with the help of a women’s self-help group — Shri Aastha Mahila Gat (SAMG). SAMG has been trained under the Swachh Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyan scheme. The plant treats green waste with help of earthworms in three pits specially designed for the plant. Manure produced from the plant is used in the hospital premises exclusively for cultivating trees, gardens. “We are using the plant as the model for setting up vermicompost plants in other parts of the city. People from housing societies, social organisations are given training about waste segragation and vermicompost.
