Current good practices: A case study

documentation



Karitha karma Sena members showing the cloth bag provided to the residents to
avoid single-use plastic carry bag
















Published by:
Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Registered offices
Bonn and Eschborn

GIZ Management of Organic Waste in India

Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
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New Delhi 110029

T + 91 4949 5353
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Responsible
Mrs. Vaishali Nandan
Head of Project, Climate Smart Cities, GIZ

Authors
Mr. Babu KY

Submitted to:
Department of Urban Development, Government of Kerala

GIZ is responsible for the content of this publication

December 2021

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About Attingal
Attingal is a densely inhabited satellite town of Thiruvananthapuram smart city that is located
on the NH 47 (National Highway), about 30 km north of Thiruvananthapuram and 40 km
south of Kollam in Kerala state of South India. It was declared as Municipality by the Town
Improvement Committee in 1922.
This town reminisces the “Attingal Riot” that is an unmissable milestone in the freedom
struggle. It also exemplifies and attracts its past through its unique Attingal Palace. The site
of the Dutch East India Company’s main garrison, Anjuthengu Fort is nearby. Attingal is
about 15 km east of the seaside town of Varkala, renowned for its splendid Papanasam
Beach. All of these tourist attractions, 26 tutorials, seven auditoriums account for 30 % of the
floating population.
The MSMW project encompasses about 11,000 households and 1,556 commercial
institutions, spread over 32 streets/roads comprising a population of 35,648, living in 16.87
square kilometers. The project handles 16.6 MT per day waste in a single day.

Background
The decentralized waste management approach in the Thiruvananthapuram district is the
first of its kind and was introduced in
Attingal in the year 2007-08. The
political will, people’s positive
approach, and their support towards
achieving a clean town yield good
results. Which has been awarded
continuously from SBCB (14 times so
far).
Attingal - Google Maps

MSWM Project Objectives.

• Door to Door Waste collection of all kinds of waste.
• Safe and scientific disposal of all kinds of waste.
• Engaging NGOs for BCC and project implementation.

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Stakeholders
The key stakeholders of this project from the public domain, are resident welfare
associations, schools, elected members, Karitha Karma Sena (Green Warriors), and the
public. The key stakeholders from the Government, include the Suchitwa Mission for
technical assistance and infrastructure finance, CKCL for non-biodegradable waste
management, and Karitha Keralam for organic waste management.

Approach
Attingal Municipality has its vision for cleanliness and MSWM System backs this vision. This
“Model waste Management” is a famous phrase in Kerala now. The successful approach for
implementation of this project can be credited to various collective approaches such as
innovation in the door-to-door collection and transport by using various types of vehicles like
pushcarts for small lanes, LMVs for streets, and HMVs for commercial areas.
The significance of this project is-
ü To encourage home composting, a portable indoor composter (Bio Bin) costing
around Rs.1400 is distributed to households that segregate garbage at the source
and are interested in composting.
ü The segregated wet waste is treated through the windrow method and Vermin
compost.
ü All the dry waste is further segregated by Karitha Karma Senas mainly into four types
such as paper, LDPE, PET, and MLP. The ULB has an agreement with a private
agency the separate plastic garbage. Now, an arrangement is being negotiated with
CKCL to obtain more authorized recyclers at a lower cost.
ü Compost siver conveyor belt attached blower (fatka machine), shredding (10mm),
cleaning, micro shredding (2-3 mm), and high elevated incinerators are being utilized
to handle sanitary pads, diapers, masks, and other home hazardous wastes.
ü The leachates, from vermi and windrow composting units along with biogas digester
to produce green gas.
ü On daily basis, all the banana fruit stems collected from the market are processed
through innaculam/ EM solutions for about 90 days, before being fed into a
vermicompost unit for producing manure using hybrid worms.
ü Specially constructed dustbins for schools to collect dry waste and inculcate the
practice of segregation at source among young minds.
ü Innovations - like the Thermocole disposal using Acetone (SQ) chemical and the final
product in the form of granule, which is used as a raw material for the production of
plastic.

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 ü Similarly, after washing, the collected human hairs are converted into oil that can be
utilized as a liquid fertilizer for agricultural reasons by adding some chemicals.

Achievements
ü The MSWM system in the ULB has developed and is now a state model.
ü The decentralized approach is the main reason for this success.
ü The physical infrastructure finance support is approximately 59 % by plan funds from
state & central and 41.7 % by ULB itself.

Success factors
The success factors for Attingal are as below
• It is primarily because of political will, especially support from municipal councils.
• Strong leadership from LAD.
• The role of elected members in convincing people.
• A reasonable monthly salary of Rs.12,000/- from Ayankalai Urban minimum wages
scheme, for Kundumba Shree and Karitha Karma Sena members.
• Kasercode Social Service Society NGO’s commitment towards the proper execution
of the project.

Limitations
• Still, the segregation at source from some commercial as well as houses is a
challenge.
• The day by day increasing plastic waste, especially MLPs.
• Owing to COVID-19, the usage of single-use plastic has increased for sanitary
reasons, hence dry waste collection has increased, despite the state's prohibition on
single-use plastic in 2019.

Future plan
A tender is already in circulation for the scientific biomining process of 13,000 Meters cube
accumulated legacy and historical waste, which is in the vicinity of the present waste
management campus.

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 Sl. Acronyms Abbreviations
No
1 MSWM Municipal Solid Waste Management
2 SPCB State Pollution Control Board
3 BCC Behaviour Change Communication
4 CKCL Clean Kerala Company Limited
5 LDPE Low-Density Poly Ethylene

6 MLP Multi-Layer Plastic

7 PET Poly Ethylene Trephatalate
8 MT Metric Ton

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Annex-1: All the above good practices presented in the pictural form

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 A clean street
in the municipal
area

A clean street in
the municipal area

All the
biodegradable
waste processing
through big
windows using
inaculam .

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 Collected mixed
waste segregated
by Karitha Karma
Sena ( Green
Warriors )

10 MM shredded
plastic waste

Specially
designed
dustbins for
schools to
collect dry waste
and inculcate
the practice of
segregation at
source among
children

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 Segregated plastic
waste especially MLP
& Carry bag ready
shredding

Indoor composter unit worth Rs.1400 given to houses to encourage them to do home
composting at the source

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 Thermocol processing
using Aceton and the
final product in the
form of granule to be
used as raw material
for producing plastic
again

Bio waste
seiwer & tro mil

To wash the carry

bag & MLP before
shredding

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 Banana Stem
processing

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 Biogas Plant to
produce green
energy from
leachates from Vermi
& Bio compost units

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