Holcim unit, Geocycle working on energy generation from garbage

A permanent solution for the perennial problem of household garbage disposal appears to be in sight with Geocycle, the sustainability arm of cement maker Holcim (Lanka) Ltd, working on energy generation from household garbage.

This was revealed by Randeewa Malalasooriya, Business Development Manager, Geocycle, at a press conference held late last month in Colombo to announce their 2nd ' Geo Responsibility Awards (GRA) 2012. These awards were presented on March 15.

Geocycle at present is recycling industrial

Plans are afoot to launch recycling of household waste but they are still working on modalities to arrive at a time-plan

waste and hazardous waste and obtain energy, replacing the coal use in its furnaces with this new 32% energy. Stefan Huber, CEO, Holcim Lanka said that their industrial waste management has been a great service to the environment and certain types of waste they collect are purely to be de- stroyed.

He said that plans are afoot to launch recycling of household waste but they are still working on modalities to arrive at a time-plan.

He said that they havebeen operating the industrial waste management for the last nine years and are planning to expand the programme on a large scale by 2013.

Though Geocycle collects electronic waste, they don't recycle this but hand over to their partners in the project to be sent to countries like China, which recycles electronic waste. These collections are voluntarily done as part of Holcim CSR.

The GRA Awards known as Carbon Neutral Awards has been the first ever Carbon Neutral Awards in the Asian Region and Geocycle was able to adhere to GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Protocol, establishing the premium eco-friendly and sustainable brand. Since Geocycle was launched in 2003 it has disposed more than 250,000 metric tons of waste, which otherwise would have ended up in landfills, water bodies or burning and which would have caused severe damage to the environment.

(QP)