A Bengaluru woman’s machine may solve the issue of sanitary waste disposal in India

Nisha has gotten a patent for her machine and is in talks with three state governments to install her pollution free incinerators in solid waste management units.

news Waste management

In 2017, Bengaluru-based Nisha Nazre’s Zuci Fem Care Solutions Private Limited had built a pollution free incinerator to dispose of sanitary pads. Two years later, Nisha has gotten a patent for her machine and is already in talks with state governments of Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab and Haryana to install these machines in solid waste management units in a big way.

The incinerator has now been installed in two places – one unit in Telangana and two units in Karnataka – in government facilities. And while Nisha is running the pilot projects, she is waiting for the general elections to get over to get the final permissions from the state governments to install the machines on a larger scale in the states.

What is special about the Zuci Fem Care incinerators is that it incinerates sanitary pads without releasing poisonous gases like carbon monoxide, and dioxins into the atmosphere. Nisha explains that box heaters, which are generally used to dispose of sanitary pads by burning them, are essentially boxes that have heating coils in them. “Using a box heater and burning a pad in the open have the same effect. There is no filter for the harmful chemicals that are released into the atmosphere,” she says.

The problems and challenges in the disposal of sanitary waste are one of the biggest reasons why activists have been pushing for reusable and biodegradable menstruation products. However, the scope of the same is limited due to many reasons such as availability of clean water, stigma, maintenance and notions such as menstrual blood is untouchable and impure. For reasons like these, Nisha says that it’s important to dispose of sanitary waste responsibly and sustainably as disposable pads are the most popular menstrual hygiene products in use.

This is easier said than done, though. When you throw away a sanitary pad, it either ends up in a landfill where it takes hundreds of years to degrade due to the plastic components in it. Or, it has to be burnt, which releases toxic chemicals. Further, to completely burn a pad, it would need to be heated for 4-5 minutes at a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius.

This is where the Zuci Fem Care incinerator is different. “It can heat up to the temperature of 600 degrees Celsius in three minutes. And the smoke is treated so that toxins are not released into the air. Odour is also treated and so is the water. The machine uses 40 litres of water, which has to be changed every five months. It is treated and reused by the machine till then. The sludge and ash that is created go into separate compartments too, and are not just released into the environment,” Nisha explains.

The incinerator has two chambers. In the primary chamber, used sanitary pads are put and get burnt. In the secondary chamber, the gases are filtered and neutralised. The water in the machine is used as a medium to filter the gases. There are two models available – one for Rs 1,45,000 and another for Rs 1,66,000. The price varies according to the capacity of the machines, Nisha shares.

In one hour, the machine can incinerate up to 200 sanitary napkins, and the electricity consumption amounts to less than 50 paise per pad, Nisha adds. In one go, 50 sanitary pads can be incinerated in the machine.

While she awaits the go-ahead from the state governments, Nisha has big plans for the incinerator. “Once the elections are over, I will approach many other state governments too. I want to take this across India, install it in government as well as private facilities, so sanitary waste can be disposed off safely, sustainably and locally,” Nisha says.

Apart from the patent, Ambala-based Microteknik, which handles technical support for the incinerators, also has certifications for quality control by CCPL (Care Control Private Limited) and TNV UK. It was founded by and is under the leadership of Vikas Jain.

Apart from these, Nisha is also in the R&D stage of incinerators that can dispose of adult and baby diapers.