DCC gets 100 eco-friendly garbage trucks

The Dhaka City Corporation will soon press into service 100 environmentally friendly garbage trucks to reduce pollution and carbon emission in the capital. Of the vehicles, 35 are trash compactors with a capacity of up to five tonnes.
They also include 20 arm-roll carriers with a capacity of seven tonnes and 45 containers with a capacity of up to five tonnes, reports The Daily Star.
Tariq Bin Yousuf, project director of DCC Landfill Improvement Project, said they received the vehicles from the Japan government last month under the project, Improvement of Solid Waste in Dhaka City towards Low Carbon Society.
“We have started using three compactors and three arm-roll carriers in parts of the city on a trial basis. We will use all the vehicles gradually,” he said.
He said the environmentally friendly vehicles could help reduce emission of one tonne of carbon dioxide a day in Dhaka.
“The Dhaka City Corporation now has around 300 garbage trucks including the open ones and other equipment. We will replace those gradually,” he said.
Open trucks are not good environmentally as they leave garbage and liquid waste on the streets while carrying those to dumping sites. But trash compactors and arm-roll carriers are free of this limitation, he said.
Compactors have a mechanism to coagulate solid waste. It can also separate liquid and solid waste, he said.
The compactors will collect waste directly from secondary collectors in the city. There are about 2,000 points, where secondary collectors dump household waste, Tariq said.
The high-up said they are training drivers to run the new vehicles. The DCC also submitted a proposal to the LGRD and cooperatives ministry for appointing 50 more drivers on daily payment.
The vehicles will be used in the city’s 20 wards, he added.
Tariq said nearly 4,000 tonnes of solid waste is generated a day in the city. Of that, 2,208 tonnes are collected and dumped into two DCC dumping grounds — one at Matuail and the other at Aminbazar.
The rest get dumped into rivers, canals and other water bodies, open spaces and low-lying areas, he said.

Courtesy of The Daily Star