Creating wealth from waste

HYDERABAD: Sights of untidy public lawns, strewn with yellow dried leaves could soon be a thing of the past, if the initiative of a city-based entrepreneur to create wealth from bio-degradable waste gets going from next year. Two days after GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu called for innovative ideas in waste management, an initiative called Wealth From Waste, being developed by V Anil Kumar, CEO, Sree Engineering Works, seems to be an answer to the same.The initiative looks to collect fallen yellow leaves across city parks and gardens in the month of February-April and recycle them into briquettes which are useful substitutes to charcoal and firewood. And what’s more, the company also plans to use coconut husks as raw material, and furniture waste in a few months.“The idea is to convert agricultural waste (biomass) into briquettes. The huge quantity of yellow leaves lying in city parks in the early months of the year are very good raw material for the same,” said Anil Kumar when asked about the recycling process “This year’s collection period is over. But before next year, we intend to join hands with the corporation to collect the leaves from all parks. The commissioner has shown interest in the initiative by promising manpower and collection vehicles.”Explaining that a number of briquette factories were present across the city, he said, “there is a shortage in supply of raw materials. The requirement is very high, but the duration of leaf collection which is spread over just a few months makes it difficult to meet the demand.”To deal with shortage of raw materials, Anil Kumar is contemplating collection of coconut shells from next year. “Dry leaves, twigs, furniture waste etc are easier to change into powder form. But we are looking to bring in new machinery to handle hard bio mass raw materials such as coconut shells soon. The waste tender coconut will be useful," he said.