(image for representation)
| Photo Credit: SHAIKMOHIDEEN A
A mere 10-day break in collection of sanitary waste has created a backlog of 3,200 orders in the Kochi Corporation in Kerala, even as the collection is set to resume in full steam from Wednesday (September 17, 2025).
Waste collection was temporarily stalled after one of the two incinerators of the Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTF) of the Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Limited (KEIL) at Ambalamedu was shut down for maintenance on September 1. Though the incinerator was back in service since September 10, Aakri, a mobile app-based platform for doorstep collection of waste, is only set to resume collection from Wednesday.
N.K. Pillai, CEO of KEIL, said Aakri was permitted to bring in sanitary waste collected from the Corporation limits from September 10. “Though they had been bringing in sanitary waste since then, it was presumably from outside, since we came to know they were yet to resume collection of sanitary waste from the Corporation limits,” he said.
KEIL and the Kochi Corporation have an agreement for the treatment of sanitary waste being collected and transported by Aakri for the last few years. Thanks to the Corporation subsidy, sanitary waste was collected from households for ₹12 per kg, while Aakri gets paid for the transport and collection. However, since the shutdown of the incinerator at KEIL, Aakri has been collecting sanitary waste from Corporation limits for their standardised rate of ₹45 per kg, much to the heartburn of the city residents.
“KEIL had initially asked us to bring in around two tonnes of sanitary waste a day since the incinerator was pressed back into service after maintenance, before gradually increasing the volume to the usual quota of around five tonnes. We didn’t resume collection since we could not have collected three tonnes of sanitary waste for ₹12 per kg and the rest of the two tonnes for ₹45 per kg in a discriminatory manner from within the Corporation limits. Neither could we afford to collect the waste for ₹12 per kg and take it to another facility for treatment. Now that KEIL has restored the previous five tonnes capacity a day, we will resume collection on Wednesday,” said G. Chandrasekhar, CEO of Aakri, which collects around nine tonnes of sanitary waste a day from four corporations and 32 municipalities.
He, however, was confident of clearing the backlog of 3,200 orders by this weekend.
Priority for biomedical waste
Meanwhile, KEIL has clarified that it cannot afford to accommodate more than five tonnes of sanitary waste from the Corporation limits in a day, out of its combined installed capacity of 10 tonnes of its two incinerators, since the priority is the treatment of biomedical waste from hospitals.
It handles another six tonnes of biomedical waste a day by disinfecting and shredding before giving it for recycling.
Published – September 17, 2025 09:28 am IST
