Zero Waste Management Initiative at Coimbatore Airport

Coimbatore International Airport, Coimbatore Corporation and Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) have initiated zero waste management at the airport premises, from Monday.

“About 900 kilograms of garbage is generated at the airport here daily. More than 85 per cent of it comes from 25 domestic and two international flights that land here every day. The rest is the waste produced by eateries, etc at the airport,” says Airport Director G. Prakash Reddy.

The waste is in huge volumes and comprises mostly of plastic bottles, cartons and carry bags, besides food waste. It is all dumped in an open yard close to the cargo section. Corporation trucks collect the garbage from there once a day in the morning or afternoon.

As it is just once a day, the garbage is accessible to stray animals, vermin and birds that scatter the litter across the nearby areas. This attracts the bigger birds posing a danger of bird hits.

“We realised that stopping the food chain would put an end to entry of stray animals to the airport,” adds the airport director.

The initiative was inaugurated by the Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan on Monday. Now, the airlines will collect the wastes from the aircraft and deposit it into a kiosk near the terminal building. Persons deployed by RAAC will collect the garbage twice a day from the kiosk and take it to a segregation unit that has been lying unused for eight months since it was established. 

There, the waste will be segregated into degradable, non-degradable, recyclable and non-recyclable wastes.“They will segregate it from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and sell the recyclable materials to recycling units. Degradable and non-recyclable wastes will be collected by the corporation. It will put an end to the garbage menace without any expense to the airport,” says Terminal Manager Vanaja Sole.

According to Mr. Prakash Reddy the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is also planning to establish a biogas plant at the airport later this year after studying the volume of degradable wastes generated at the airport.

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New facilities provided at CMCH by RACC

The Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore and the Cognizant Foundation have provided a bio-medical waste collection centre and a parking lot at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital in order to help a public health institution maintain hygiene.An open bio-medical waste dump has been cleaned and Mayflower trees have been raised on it. Near this site is an enclosure created by both the organisations for the hospital to store the bio-medical waste generated every day. The waste is collected by a private organisation entrusted with the task of disposal at a common facility on the city’s outskirts.

The cleanliness drive in the hospital is being carried out under RAAC’s clean environs programme for the city – Alagana Kovai.At a function held at the hospital to dedicate the facilities, foundation Chief Executive S. Madhavan said due credit for the role model project must go to RAAC for conceptualising and executing it. Funding was only a small part of the project, he said. Mr. Madhavan felt that Alagana Kovai had actually overtaken Singara Chennai programme by reaching out to various sections with its concept of creating clean environs with people’s involvement.

Dean (in-charge) of the hospital S. Veerakesari said the maintenance of the hospital was an arduous task and appreciated the contribution of RAAC and the Cognizant Foundation. He presented a certificate of appreciation of the project at the hospital to Mr. Madhavan and RAAC president C.R. Swaminathan. Resident Medical Officer of the hospital P. Sivaprakasam and Vice-President and Head of Operations, Coimbatore of Cognizant Technology Solutions Vishnu Potty were present.

Mr. Potty listed the various corporate-social responsibility initiatives of the company in education and health care.Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Mr. Swaminathan explained how the project turned a hazardous waste dump in the hospital into a clean area with a ramp leading to the bio-medical waste centre. “But, we still have a long way to go. We join hands with the doctors and other staff of the hospital in making it a good institution in its Golden Jubilee year,” he said. What RAAC did was an example of how responsible citizens could help the public health machinery.

RAAC joint secretary R. Raveendran said the works done under the Rs.20 lakh project included the establishing of the bio-medical waste centre at Rs.80,000, the parking lot at Rs.2.10 lakh and a model ward at Rs.1.80 lakh with assistance from the Inner Wheel Club.