UN panel, BMC to make bricks from building & demolition waste

Bhubaneswar: UN-Habitat and Norwegian Retailers Environment Fund (NERF) will partner with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to process construction and demolition (C&D) waste as well as raw plastic waste, to make bricks.
Raw plastic waste that mix up with regular municipal solid waste and the piled up C&D waste together will be processed to make durable bricks that have multiple utilities.
The UN-Habitat is the knowledge partner, which will help pull fund from NERF to set up the brick-making unit. BMC will provide space to set up the production unit, BMC officials said.
Deputy commissioner (sanitation) Manaranjan Sahu said the brick making unit will receive 10 tonne raw material, five tonne each of C&D and plastic waste daily but it will produce four tonne brick daily from raw materials.
“We now have a temporary C&D waste dumping yard. Our enforcement squads seize the waste that litter roads and public spaces or are recklessly stacked up in front of houses,” he added.
On an average, the BMC seizes about 50 tonne of C&D waste from different places in the city. It has different dumping stations to dump them. In the absence of a C&D plant, it is not able to process those and reuse as brick. Recently, a team from the civic body visited Chandigarh to witness use of C&D waste bricks and paver blocks.
According to BMC’s rule, waste generated through construction, repair, transportation, re-modelling and demolition of private and govt establishments, households, roads and drains, should be handled properly to avoid litter. If found littered, they will be seized. The special drive against C&D waste has been going on since July 1, 2023.
“We will use bulk of produced bricks for various construction works the BMC takes up such as construction of boundary walls and placing paver blocks. The surplus brick may be sold. We are yet to work out the modalities,” Sahu added.
The C&D waste, if abandoned, encroaches upon the road and lends an ugly look to the city. It also causes accidents and clogs drain. The special drive against C&D waste is still on and three squads are engaged in enforcing it, a BMC officer said.
A BMC squad has been authorised to impose penalty of Rs 5, 000 per trip on owners of such waste. In addition, if the BMC removes the waste using its own tractor, it charges Rs 4,500 per trip of waste.