Mumbai has only three landfills -- Mulund, Deonar, and Kanjuramrg -- to deal with the entire city’s garbage. Moreover, the one in Mulund is in the process of being closed.
The BMC has now set up the goal of achieving 100 per cent decentralised garbage processing in the city. For this, it is working on decreasing the solid waste at two of its landfills in Deonar and Kanjurmarg.
Currently, Kanjurmarg's waste processing plant handles 80% of the waste. Now, the BMC is looking to decentralise it and manage solid waste more sustainably over the long term. To do that, the civic body has set up Refuse Transfer Stations (RTS) in various parts of the city, including Mahalaxmi, Kurla, Versova, and Gorai.
These RTS facilities serve as temporary deposit and aggregation points for solid waste. The waste from municipal wards is first sent to these stations. It is then transported to the landfill's waste processing unit. Large compactors are used to load the waste for disposal.
According to sources, the BMC plans to upgrade these RTS facilities so that there is one RTS within a 15-kilometre radius. This will help reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste that ends up in landfills.
Recently, the municipal commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani, visited the Kanjurmarg landfill to assess the work being done. He was with deputy commissioner for solid waste management Sanjog Kabre and additional commissioner Sudhakar Shinde, Gagrani.
Every day, the city produces 6,300 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage. Of this, approximately 4,500 MT are transferred to the Kanjurmarg processing plant. There are plans to build a 600-MT waste-to-energy plant at the Deonar landfill. Whereas, Mulund landfill is being closed so that it can be reclaimed for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
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