While science books have always highlighted the concept of 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the implementation on ground reportedly varies. With the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, Make in India and Skill India Initiatives gaining prominent ground, start-ups focusing on clean energy and optimum use of available resources have also gained momentum.

One of them is Clean India Ventures (CIVL) which has come up with ‘Decentralised Green Waste Reprocessor’ (GWR) machines which up-cycle all green ‘reject’ and convert it into valuable byproducts that can be used for various purposes.

As one of their machines was recently installed at South Delhi’s R K Puram by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), it becomes essential to look at what the facility includes and how it can help Delhi sustain its ‘Green Delhi, Clean Delhi’ motto. 

Mentioning that composting is not a new concept, Alok Gupta, director, CIVL shares that the difference lies in setting up of smaller scale plants in each and every part of the city. He says, “The concept is not only new to Delhi but to India as well. As of now, composting is happening in centralised plants or at homes at an individual level. But, this is the first time that we are seeing that small plants are being manufactured and installed in localities, parks, gardens which can reprocess approximately 500 kilograms to even three tons of organic waste per day. This waste is then reprocessed either into high-quality compost or organic fertiliser used for farming or it can be used as biofuel
for cooking.”

He adds, “In many areas of rural India since LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas used for cooking) distribution is not there, this can be an alternative source of energy. While the wood-fired stove would release a lot of smoke, this fuel is completely clean as no gases are released into the environment.”

 The emphasis being on producing clean energy from waste, Manoj Pathak, technical director, CIVL describes the process. “There are three models of GWR machines which process garden waste, vegetable waste, and flower waste. The process follows collection of waste from homes and neighbourhood which are mostly organic in nature (non-biodegradable waste including plastics which are 5-10 percent) and dumping at the processing machine area. After dumping, shredding is done and whatever is left is put by workers at a potent combination of temperature and moisture which reprocesses granules into biomass.” While their previous installations at various locations in Central Delhi, Talkatora Garden, Nehru Park and Buddha Park Garden have started to show “satisfactory results”, Gupta says, “A city like Delhi generates at least 4,000 tonnes of organic waste on a daily basis which means that 4,000 of our machines can be put in Delhi. What will happen is atleast 65-70 percent of the waste will not go the landfills.”

He adds, “By March 2016, we are aiming for 20 more installations across Delhi-NCR. We are not only looking at selling the machines to corporations but want to handle the entire process or end-to-end management of the process. We are confident that this can be a game-changer in India’s environment policy. Today, India is looking to import clean technologies, so we ask, why not export it rather?”