As part of the eco-campus drive, a zero waste initiative has been undertaken which is the brainchild of our honourable Director Dr Anjan Ray. The long-term objective of the initiative is to use the campus waste as a source of energy/ valuable feedstock for the generation of fuel that can be utilized for the betterment of the campus life.
We had taken an initiative to use the waste for value addition by using in-house technologies, which not only save the money but also create a self-sustainable waste free campus. A sustainable practice has been adopted for waste segregation (wet & dry), collection and disposal. The biodegradable (wet) waste (generated about 60-70 kg per day) would be utilized for the production of biogas by using CSIR-IIP biogas technology. The generated biogas will be enough to generate ~175 kWh electricity to lighting the street lights of IIP-campus. Similarly, the estimated amount of the plastic waste (polythenes) generated per day in the campus are 15-20 Kg, which would be utilized for the production of fuel in an in-house built 1ton/day (1 TPD) capacity plant based on the IIP technology. On an advancement, the eco-campus team planned for wastewater treatment as well as recycling and rainwater harvesting in a decentralised manner.
The campus promised to provide better sustainable solutions for the future, for example, development of microbial consortium for the decomposition of common household organic waste. The eco-campus team has led an initiative to sensitise people and make the community responsive for the proper waste segregation and disposal by involving PhD students under CSIR-HARIT programme. Under this programme campaigning, door-to-door visits, posters and banners were made by the students, which helped to teach campus society people about differentiating different kinds of wastes and their segregation.
