Udupi: A town panchayat in Dakshina Kannada is showing the way in effective management of municipal (solid) waste by converting it into vermicompost.

Mulky Town Panchayat with a population of about 8,000 and with about 5,600 houses had its first harvest of 1,400 kg of vermicompost recently. In that, it has now sold 700 kg compost.

Built under the guidance of S. Hareesh Joshy, a former professor of zoology and an expert on vermi technology, the vermicompost plant has 12 bins constructed from bricks. Of them, six bins have the capacity to harvest 3,000 kg of vermicompost at a time and the panchayat can harvest 1,500 kg of compost at a time from the remaining six bins.

Mr. Joshy, the consultant of the project, told The Hindu that five harvests could be made from each bin in a year. Thus, the panchayat can harvest 22,500 kg of compost annually.

Chief officer of the panchayat Indu M. said the urban local body collected 7.5 tonnes (or 7,500 kg) of garbage or solid waste from 18 wards daily. In that, half of the garbage (3.5 tonnes) was wet waste, which was being converted into vermicompost now after segregation. Of the remaining dry waste included plastic bags and other plastic materials and hard paper materials. The panchayat sold them too.

“If the purchasers of vermicompost are locals, we charge ₹20 per kg. For outsiders, it will be ₹25 per kg,” Ms. Indu said, adding that there was good demand for the compost. Hence, the panchayat has now begun collecting revenue from both wet waste and dry waste.

Excluding the roof of the plant (which existed earlier), the panchayat has spent ₹10 lakh for the plant and associated facilities.

Gavisiddappa, municipal worker, who supervises the compost plant, said the landfill site had heaps of garbage with stench four months ago. Now, one can breathe comfortably with no foul smell.

“Such vermicompost plants, if built and managed scientifically by all urban local bodies, will definitely help in effective management of municipal waste,” said Mr. Joshy.

Incidentally, this town panchayat bagged seventh rank in the Swachh Survekshan Survey 2018 in the State among the urban local bodies having less than one lakh population. It got second rank in the same survey among town panchayats.