Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department has initiated steps to set up decentralised waste processing plants in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to lessen the burden on the Bhuasuni yard.

About 500 tonnes of municipal solid waste is dumped at the yard every day. Of this, about 150 tonnes arrive from Cuttack, while the rest is from Bhubaneswar. Sources said of the 500 tonnes, about 200 tonnes is biodegradable.

"We have invited proposals from potential consultants to prepare a detailed project report for waste processing plants in Cuttack. We have already decided to set up five mini plants at the temporary transit station near Sainik School in Bhubaneswar," said a housing and urban development official.

With the decentralised processing plants, officials plan to generate compost after scientific treatment of biodegradable waste and use it in crop fields. "The plants will be constructed with funds raised from the government," said the official.

Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had already initiated steps for the mini processing plants at the temporary transit station and it will became operational shortly.

"We have made our plans for the plant according to directions. In the case of Cuttack, it will be done with a separate consultant," said Jena.

Neither city has any system to segregate waste, resulting in different kinds of waste being dumped at Bhuasuni. "There are different kinds of waste and in the absence of a segregation system, everything is mixed up and not disposed in a scientific manner," said environmentalist Alok Mohanty.

The civic body here tried to ensure source segregation of waste by introducing colour-coded waste bins, but that initiative failed in the absence of awareness among people. "The colour bins are broken. It is a failure of the civic body," said Unit-III resident Kiran Sahoo.