GPRA Complex Motibagh is the first redevelopment project developed by NBCC. Our Founder and Director, Mr. Rajesh Mittal, conceived the concept of Zero Waste to Landfill and with the help of our dynamic leader, Dr Sudhir Krishna then Sect. MOUD, launched the first such project in the country.
One of the biggest initial challenges were to convince the community of the practicality of a decentralized waste management plant inside the campus of the most prestigious area of New Delhi.
It took a lot of effort on the part of our director to be awarded the land next to STP, that too for a first time trial of such a concept. It placed immense responsibility on us to deliver on our promise.
Our challenges did not end there. We required significant funding for the Plant setup and function, and to identify the suitable technology for pollution-free waste processing.
Due to the novel nature of the project we were unable to get outside funding and thus had to rely on our own sources for the capital required for the initial launch of the project.
After deliberations we decided to use Bricketing for horticulture waste, Compositing for wet waste, and POLYCRACKING for converting plastic waste to oil and gas – a robust technology suitable for all kinds of mixed plastic waste.
As we began our operations, another challenge we encountered was the segregation of the waste for processing. Workshops and training programs were organized to educate people to implement segregation at the source, however this yielded limited results. So we relied on our secondary segregation system, that is still producing the results.
Through overcoming these challenges and efficient management techniques, we have been successfully running the plant for the last five years without any breakdowns.
The operational expense are met partially through the sale of compost to the complex, as part of our agreement with them, and partly through the charges paid by the maintenance agency.
We believe that “Waste is Gold” is a misconception and we need to reorient our thinking to place more responsibility on the waste producer.
The processing of waste and setting up of such a plant comes with a cost that must be party paid by the waste generators, while the rest is compensated from the output generated from the waste.
A ‘Clean-Future Exclusive’ contributed by Ravi Kapoor, Executive Director at Green Planet Waste Management Pvt. Ltd.(GPWM)