Saif Group of Companies (SGC) is planning to set up a 'Compost Fertiliser Manufacturing Plant' with an estimated cost of Rs 170 million to produce compost fertiliser by recycling the 180,000 tons of solid waste being generated in Islamabad annually, sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.
M/s Capital Compost (Pvt), a subsidiary of Saif Group of Companies, which is working on the project, has submitted the documents with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its approval. Following which, Pak-EPA, as per IEE/EIA Regulations 2000, issued public notices in the National newspapers both in English and Urdu on April, 24, 2008 inviting comments from general public and other stakeholders for which hearing will be held on May 24, 2008.
Sharing the details of the project, official sources said that the project proposes the establishment of a compost facility in an area of 20 acres in Balagh settlement of Kuri village, which is 18 km far from zero point.
"CDA will provide a piece of land in Zone IV Islamabad. Besides this the authority will provide another 100 acres of land for landfill facilities designed to receive 600 tons Municipal Solid Waste ( MSW) per day which will be shredded and the organic waste will be consumed to produce fertiliser", said the sources. "Saif Group of Companies will pay Rs 0.45 million per month to CDA as rent of the land", said the official sources.
MSW will be carried out to transfer station, which will then be transported to the project site and the waste will undergo the composting process in order to produce compost fertiliser. In order to facilitate efficient transfer of MSW and its recycling, a waste transfer station is proposed to be developed in sector F-11/2 where all municipal waste will be transferred which after sorting will be transported to the project site. Officials' sources said that it is hard to predict the total quantity of the fertiliser as it will primarily depend on the type of waste. The project is likely to start this year, said the official sources.