Saahas Zero Waste celebrates 5 years of material recovery facility

Saahas Zero Waste (SZW) commemorated the successful five-year milestone of its Material Recovery Facility (MRF) operations in Jigani on Saturday.

The MRF has a capacity of 10 tonnes and is responsible for collecting 30 different categories of municipal dry waste sourced from nearby urban local bodies in Jigani, Bommasandra, Hebbagodi, and Attibele.

After sorting and aggregating, an impressive 66 per cent of this waste is sent to recyclers, while 30 per cent is utilised in cement kilns for co-processing. Only a mere four per cent of the waste ends up in landfills, said Arun Murugesh, regional director, SZW.

In the past year alone, the facility has processed a total of 3,561 metric tonnes of waste. “We have partnered with the Rural Department, Government of Karnataka; Green Worms, a Kerala-based social enterprise; and other partners. We hope this will contribute to shaping the ecosystem for decentralised waste management in the country,” said Wilma Rodrigues, CEO, SZW.

Representatives of a sustainable waste management company discussed with Alpita Rathod, UNDP Consultant; Bineesha Payattati, executive director of the International Institute of Waste Management; and Akshay Soni, executive director of Saamuhika Shakti and senior director of The Nudge Centre for Social Innovation; the importance of decentralising material recovery facilities and bringing them closer to the source of waste generation.