Kolkata Launches City-Wide Waste Initiative

- The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has allocated approximately ₹744.48 crore to the Solid Waste Management department for the 2026-27 financial year, the highest allocation for any department, to support a new comprehensive waste management infrastructure. - A central component of the new strategy is an integrated waste management plan that aims to recycle 100% of the waste generated in Kolkata. This involves a significant upgrade and expansion of the existing Dhapa landfill complex. - The daily waste handling in the city has increased from about 4,500 tonnes to nearly 6,000 tonnes, partly due to the inclusion of waste from neighboring municipalities like Bidhannagar and Howrah. - The proposed integrated facility at Dhapa will include several new units for processing different types of waste, such as a refuse-derived fuel plant, a CNG bottling plant from waste, and units for recycling plastic and thermocol. - In addition to the Dhapa modernization, the KMC is planning a new integrated facility with a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) plant in Patharghata, with a capacity to process 500 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day at an estimated cost of ₹177 crore. - This initiative comes as the city's long-standing waste segregation at source program has struggled to gain momentum, with Mayor Firhad Hakim acknowledging that mixed waste continues to arrive at the Dhapa facility, hindering recycling efforts. - As part of the broader strategy, the KMC has recently inaugurated new facilities at the Dhapa site, including a 100-tonne-per-day material recovery facility and processing plants for plastic and thermocol. - Mayor Firhad Hakim has projected that revenue from waste processing could constitute up to 40% of the KMC's total revenues within the next 20 years.