Recreational parks to come up on major landfills in Chennai

Officials from the Solid Waste Management Department of the civic body recently visited Tirunelveli to study the processes involved in converting a dumping yard into recreational park. 

“The Tirunelveli Corporation has created a circular, stepped pyramid using garbage and a park on top of it. This is a better solution to handle the waste that has already been dumped. Pune has a similar park, while other cities in India are planning to implement this ‘scientifically engineered landfill’ concept,” an official said.

This is the latest in a series of efforts that the Corporation has been mulling. The last was bio-mining in the two sprawling landfills, which was dropped, concluding that the technology would not solve the problem considering the volume of garbage.

“The garbage in the landfills will be buried in a huge circular pit. Clay, synthetic and fabrication layers will be built to prevent the seepage of pollutants into the ground. After attaining certain height, another layer will be provided and again garbage will be dumped to form a circle with lesser circumference. In this method, many steps will be formed and at the top, we will create a park,” the official said, explaining the process.

The official added that half of the garbage in the landfills would be buried underground and the other half would be made into pyramids. “This will save the land and turn the stinking place into a tourist spot. There will be no stench as the garbage pyramids will be covered with soil and grass,” the official said.

The circular pyramids would be created with garbage that has already been dumped, and the waste collected every day would be taken to the landfills. “However, they will not be dumped, as incineration plants will be built to produce energy from waste. With incineration technology, we need not segregate waste into degradable and non-degradable. Delhi has two such plants and other cities including Jabalpur has such plants,” the official said.

The Corporation is also planning to build debris recycling plants at both the landfills.