A garbage conveyor belt at the waste treatment plant in Shahartali under the Jessore municipality Dhaka Tribune

A first of its kind in Bangladesh, under this project, daily waste is recycled into biogas, electricity and fertilizers

The southwestern district of Jessore has become a role model in garbage recycling through proper waste management.

A first of its kind in Bangladesh, under this project, daily waste is recycled into biogas, electricity and fertilizers.

The project titled Integrated Landfill and Resource Recovery Facility costing Tk23 crore was implemented on nearly 40 bigha (3 bigha=1 acre) in Shahartali under the Jessore municipality.

The project is a concern of the “City Region Development Project,” funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), German Development Bank and Swedish Development Co-operation Agency.

Project Supervisor Jahangir Alam said that the decomposable waste materials including fruit peels, vegetables are recycled into fertilizer.

He added that the preparation takes 28 days after which the fertilizer is processed and packed.

“The rest goes to the biogas plant,” he said before adding that the biogas is used to produce electricity which in turn powers the plant area.

Alam said that the non-decomposable waste such as plastic and polythene is dumped in the landfill and implementation of the project has changed the outlook of the area.

According to those related to the projects, the plants have the capacity of producing four tons of fertilizer daily but it was currently producing 800kg to 1 ton.

Similarly, 400 cubic metres of biogas is produced despite the capacity of 720 cubic metres. The plants currently generate 200 kilowatts of power despite its 430-kilowatt capacity.

Responding to queries on the full capacity not being used, Jahangir Alam said, “In order to reach the goals we have to collect twice the amount of waste.”

Jessore Municipality Mayor Jahirul Islam Chakladar said that the prices of the fertilizers will be fixed for sale as well as steps will be taken to process the non-decomposable materials.

Jessore Science and Technology University Environmental Science Department Assistant Professor Dr Md Mahfuzur Rahman said that if the project can be implemented scientifically, better results can be expected in future.