In March 2011, a pilot project was started with a highly performing composting facility in the
surroundings of Kathmandu. In the first six months of business, it collected more than 140 tons of
fresh organic waste from local markets (2 to 3 tons per day) and produced 15 tons of high quality
compost, which meets international quality standards regarding nutrient content. In the meantime, the
up-scaling process has already begun, namely in the form of the actual project. A new project site for
larger capacities has been contracted and the construction of composting facilities will start on
September 1st, 2012. The demand of the local market has been analyzed and assessed at 400.000 tons per
year (whereby 70% of this amount are produced by the demanders themselves). As far as the CO2 reduction
is concerned in average 4070 tons of CO2 per year over the project lifetime and up to a maximum of 7328
tons of CO2 in the year 2022.
The reduction is measured as the difference between what would have been emitted if the project had not
been introduced and the actual emissions. The project aims at collecting 50 tons of decayed vegetables
and fruit per day by 2015. Out of this amount of organic waste, 7.5 tons of compost are produced daily
(yieldof 15%).
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The beneficiary community of the project is on the one hand the entire population in and around
Kathmandu, since the waste problem is alleviated by the reduction of the amount of waste processed in
traditional landfills. On the other hand, farmers profit from the produced compost they can use for
their crops. The switch from chemical fertilizers to compost means a more sustainable way of treating
the fields.
The social benefits for this project include:
• The waste problem in the city of Kathmandu is alleviated through waste reduction (since
the organic part of the waste is now composted). This leads to a better quality of life;
• Methane is produced at uncontrolled anaerobic decomposition at landfill sites, while
composting does not produce any such gas. Harmful greenhouse gas emissions are therefore reduced
since large amounts of waste undergo controlled decomposition at a solid waste management site. The
entire community benefits from this;
• Fertilizers from organic waste are more effective for the health of soil (compost
maintains the fertility of the soil in the long run) as well as of humans and therefore benefit the
farmers in the region as well as the consumers;
• The Biocomp plant has created 10 high quality jobs for local people. Further jobs (up to
50 in total) will be created during the up-scaling process;
• The site provides jobs for women discriminated by their families and therewith
contributes to gender
equality.
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As waste is a major problem in many cities of developing countries, the project can potentially be
replicated in different places in Nepal or elsewhere. Roughly the plan is to up-scale in three steps
after the pilot project (phase 1): the first one (phase 2) is to increase the waste treated to 20
tons per day in 2012, the second one (phase 3) is to increase it further to 50 tons of waste per day
by 2015 and the third step (phase 4) is to increase it even further to 80 tons per day a few years
later. In order to achieve this higher level of output during the phases 2 to 4, the above mentioned
additional plant will be
constructed.
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