Adar Poonawalla is the owner and CEO of Serum Institute of India. His vision for the “Clean City” began in 2014 when he found it impossible to walk on Indian streets without either stepping in garbage or being able to dispose off any trash and realised that if India’s image had to be improved a drastic change would be required with good management | local government support and substantial funding upwards of 20 Million USD (100 Crore Rupees).
The first phase will cover roughly 30KM of roads in Pune. The second phase will reach the whole city which is approximately 1200KM of roads and if all that succeeds | this model can be replicated in other cities. Currently 111 machines / equipments are on the streets. Glutton Vacuum Litter Picker | Trilo Small Truck which also has a vacuum suction machine which uses the best technology to pickup and clear the waste from the streets and this is been done for the first time inIndia. His vision was to construct a self sustainable model whereby it can be replicated in other cities. This program in order to fully succeed will need to engage individuals / corporates as well to segregate their waste at source | EG : In residential societies / hotels / office complexes.
“It is only at that stage that we will truly be able to address our country’s waste as it is done in Western countries who have over the years evolved to a very sophisticated system of waste management and green recycling.”
“Everyone feels helpless when they see garbage and waste lying on our streets and everyone wants to do something about it | however the solutions to solve these basic problems have always been so complex that many have shied away from addressing them.” He realised that he would not be able to solve these issues alone and without key partnerships it would be impossible to achieve his goals. The 2 key partners he chose were Noble Exchange to manage and process the waste in a green manner and of course Pune Municipal Corporation under the guidance of Mr Kunal Kumar without which permissions and planning would have been impossible. He also realised that a lot of his personal time into meticulous planning would be required whether it was designing of bins | logistics | truck movement and processing of waste in an environmentally friendly manner.
An initiative to make cities more livable
Adar Poonawalla Clean City is an environmentally sustainable initiative | undertaken by Serum Institute of India and Mr. Adar Poonawalla as an contribution towards social responsibility | and aspires to make Indian Urban Cities more livable. It will strive to achieve this objective through efficient and scientific management of Organic Food Waste. Organic Food Waste when disposed unscientifically create a series of social | environmental and health hazards such as emission of hazardous / poisonous green house gases | odor | breeding ground for flies | mosquitoes | bacteria and viruses | polluting of ground water reserves amongst others. Such food / organic waste generated in large volume in Urban Cities can be processed scientifically to be converted into renewable energy and organic manure. At current estimates | 52-55% of total municipal waste generated in urban cities is Organic in nature. When such waste is segregated and removed separately – at source – it will enable for rest of the inorganic waste like plastic | metal | paper | rags | etc. to be also available for scientific processing and recycling. This will ensure minimization of land fill and freeing up of urban land for more productive / constructive use by the cities.
What will we be doing
The APCCM will focus on supporting the Pune Municipal Corporation with infrastructure and management of solid waste | specially focusing on organic waste management. Initiatives undertaken in this direction will include:
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- Providing of litter bins to be installed at strategic / high traffic locations across the city
- Support vehicles and manpower for clearance of garbage from litter bins
- Mobile food waste processing vans that will enable processing of organic food waste at ward level
- Information and outreach programs to educate citizens regarding importance of segregation of waste and disposal using waste / litter bins
- Activation programs in association with PMC at school | mohalla committee | residential societies | market places amongst others
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About the Process
The initiative will focus / strive to remove as much organic food waste segregated at source and divert the same for scientific processing. Rest of inorganic waste will be diverted to transfer stations managed by PMC and thereafter into the recycling / reprocessing plants. It is targeted to segregate and process 300-350 tons of wet food waste and convert it into biofuel and organic manure. So | in a year about 109,500 tonnes of wet waste will get processed. But that’s not all. There will be other allied advantages as well. It will also ensure that garbage does not go into a landfill and spread health hazards and outbreaks. About 109 acres of landscape will be freed in the process. Furthermore | one year of wet waste removal will also result in 542 tonnes of carbon emission saved by fuel replacement thereby helping the planet breathe easy.
Long-term Vision
Pune is the first city to adopt the Adar Poonawalla Clean City. While this is a first step towards achieving the vision of making cities livable | the Movement’s long term goal is to ensure that more and more cities adopt this movement and Urban India becomes cleaner | greener | healthier and happier.