BIT-Mesra has found out an eco-friendly way to tackle the problem of garbage accumulation.

The institute is coming up with a vermicomposting unit on the campus for converting bio-degradable waste into organic fertilisers with the help of earthworms.

Environment Protection and Awareness Club (EPAC), a students’ activity outfit working for environmental conservation among the budding technocrats of BIT, will dig up an eight-metre long and three-metre wide pit, protected by a shade, for the purpose.

The depth of the pit, which will have a number of chambers, will be one and a half metre. The walls of the unit will be made of normal bricks, having small holes to facilitate easy movement of earthworms from one chamber to another.

The EPAC members are hoping to process 100kg of organic waste generated everyday on an average from 500 households, 13 hostels and five canteens located on the campus into black, earthy-smelling and nutrient-rich humus.

At present, the campus, spread over 800 acres, lacks a proper dumping yard to dispose of kitchen remains.

MD of Hotel Green Horizon Chandrakant Raipat, who is an alumnus of BIT-Mesra, and his wife Bharti Raipat, head of department of zoology at St Xavier’s College, have come forward to fund the entire project, which is pegged at Rs 25,000.

“We will be working in tandem with EPAC members to make the institute pollution-free. Fertilisers developed from the vermicompost unit can be used for gardening and other purposes,” Chandrakant said.

Club president Akash Raj said work would start next week once the summer vacation gets over.

“Safe disposal of large quantity of waste generated on the premises is a major problem. At present, we ask the canteen staff to burn the garbage or either use it to fill up land wherever necessary. But such processes do not help in stemming environmental pollution,” Raj said.

Once the vermicomposting unit comes up, household and kitchen waste will be used as raw materials for preparing the organic manure, Raj added.

The EPAC members will also distribute green bins to each household and canteen to collect kitchen waste.