IL&FS Environment: Waste Management Projects Across India
Approximately 11,000 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated across India every day with
Delhi alone generating 4,500 tons. Under the Indian Government's Swachh Bharat (Clean India)
Mission,
IL&FS Environment is
finding solutions for managing the MSW using waste processing and composting plants to convert
organic waste to compost, combustibles to power, and construction waste to recycled construction
products.
The compost that IL&FS Environment produces from the solid waste acts as a soil conditioner to improve soil productivity and chemical fertilizer efficiency. Collectively, IL&FS Environmental facilities mitigate more than 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually. As of 2020, the facilities mitigated almost 500,000 tons of CO2e.
IL&FS Environment’s bundled waste processing facilities process municipal solid waste in three different Indian states, Punjab, Kerala, and Karnataka. The facilities use a windrow composting process (piling waste in long rows) to treat biodegradable components of MSW through controlled aerobic decomposition. The aerobic process avoids methane emissions that would result naturally from MSW decomposing in anaerobic conditions and produces usable compost that can be applied as organic fertilizer. The aerobic decomposition methods employed at these facilities can process a total of 600 tons of biodegradable MSW per day, equating to 219,000 tons of waste per year.
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| IL&FS Environment’s waste processing plant |
IL&FS Environment also established six compost plants for treating MSW in the state of Tamil Nadu. The aerobic decomposition methods employed at the six facilities can process 545 tons of waste per day, equating to more than 190,000 tons of waste per year.
Additionally, IL&FS Environment’s Okhla MSW composting project in Delhi uses controlled aerobic decomposition in a windrow composting process. The Okhla project treats biodegradable waste predominantly from vegetable markets, diverting an average of approximately 73,000 tons of MSW per year that would otherwise be disposed in a landfill. The project also demonstrates that carbon credit finance mechanisms can catalyze environmentally sustainable and financially viable waste management practices.