Coimbatore's Waste Gap: Over 320 Tonnes Daily Unprocessed, CPCB Alerts NGT
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has reported significant deficiencies in Coimbatore's solid waste management, indicating that over 320 tonnes of waste generated daily in the city are left unprocessed. The findings were part of a report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is hearing a suo motu case related to a fire at the Vellalore dumpyard in April 2024.
According to the CPCB report, Coimbatore city produces approximately 1,293 tonnes of solid waste every day. This includes about 795 tonnes of wet waste, 455 tonnes of dry waste, and the remainder from animal waste, street sweepings, and sanitary waste. The inspection of the Vellalore dumpyard and waste processing facilities was conducted in February on the directions of the NGT.
The Coimbatore Corporation has deployed a mix of decentralised facilities, including Micro Composting Centres (MCCs), Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), and Dry Waste Centres (DWCs), alongside larger integrated processing units at the Vellalore site. Wet waste is processed through windrow composting, vermicomposting, and MCCs. The windrow composting plant has a design capacity of 600 tonnes per day (TPD), but its operational capacity is only 460 TPD. Similarly, the vermicomposting plant is designed for 100 TPD but utilises just 47 TPD. The MCCs have a combined design capacity of 97.6 TPD, with only 32.2 to 36 TPD being utilised.
For dry waste, the Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) and recyclables processing plant has a design capacity of 340 TPD, with an operational capacity of 274.5 TPD. Additional dry waste from bulk generators is handled through MRFs and DWCs, which together have a design capacity of 77 TPD but utilise only 49 to 59 TPD.
The report highlights a substantial gap between the waste generated and the actual processing capacity. For dry waste, the city generates 455 TPD against a designed processing capacity of 417 TPD. However, the operational capacity is only 333.5 TPD, leaving 121.5 TPD unprocessed. In the case of wet waste, generation stands at 795 TPD, with a designed capacity of 747 TPD and an operational capacity of just 593.6 TPD. This results in an unprocessed amount of 201.4 TPD. Combined, over 320 tonnes of waste per day remain unaccounted for, which the CPCB has flagged as a serious concern.
The report also observed that several decentralised facilities were either non-operational or under-utilised. At the time of inspection, only 10 MCCs and 16 MRFs/DWCs were found to be functioning. This underutilisation contributes to the overall inefficiency in the city's waste management system.
The CPCB report was presented before the NGT during a hearing on August 5. The tribunal has scheduled the next hearing for September 2, 2026, indicating that the matter will be monitored over an extended period. The findings underscore the need for urgent improvements in Coimbatore's waste processing infrastructure to address the environmental and public health risks posed by unmanaged waste.
