Kolkata: The West Bengal Urban Development Department has decided to set up waste processing plants in all 128 municipalities across the state.
The work has already started in 14 municipalities, and it has been decided that by March 2026, solid waste processing will be completed in 91 municipalities.
Work is already underway in Kolkata, Siliguri, Alipurduar, Baidyabati, Champdani, Serampore, Konnagar, Baranagar, Uttar Dumdum, Dakshin Dumdum, New Barrackpur, Kharagpur and Haldia.
The Urban Development Department has decided that all perishable waste and plastic or imperishable waste will be separately processed to create organic fertiliser as well as plastic granules.
These plastic granules will yield several usable articles, while the perishable waste will be converted into organic fertiliser and biogas. Simultaneously, this process will alleviate pollution and malodor at the dumping grounds.
A lot of times, there is not enough waste generated to run such processing plants. In that cà se, wastes from two to three municipalities will be combined for processing.
To date, the state has identified 123 dumping grounds with 198 lakh metric tons of waste.
Out of this, 42 dumping grounds in 28 municipalities have been scientifically cleaned. This has allowed 76.55 lakh metric tons of waste to be reused after processing.
