Victoria Memorial gets first composting unit to treat 500kg organic waste daily

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Limited, the highly diversified PSE, as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has set up the first composting unit at Victoria Memorial. 

Chairman and managing director Prabal Basu of Balmer Lawrie, who was the chief guest, on Friday inaugurated Kolkata’s first of its kind Composting Unit and Solid Waste Management System installed at Victoria Memorial. Manjusha Bhatnagar, director (HR & CA), Balmer Lawrie was the guest of honour. 

K Swaminathan, director (Service Business) and Jayanta Sengupta, secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial were alos present on the occasion.

The unit is equipped with cutting-edge technology and has a capacity to treat 500kg of organic waste daily. 

Speaking on the occasion, Prabal Basu, CMD of Balmer Lawrie said this initiative was a good example of solid waste management and such a model needs to be replicated across the city. 

This will help supplement our Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing initiative of Clean India Campaign and Balmer Lawrie is pleased to be able to contribute towards this nationwide cleanliness drive. 

The unit helps to recycle the waste to generate organic manure. Thus the waste is prevented from being sent for landfill, reducing air and soil pollution to a great extent.

Secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial Jayanta Sengupta appreciated the efforts of Balmer Lawrie in setting up the unit. He stated that the compost produced from organic waste is rich in soil nutrients and will be used in-house for gardening thus saving a huge amount spent on fertilisers. 

He added that Victoria Memorial is one of the important tourist spots attracting huge foot falls daily and with the installation of the unit, the organic waste collected can be recycled and reused as manure. 

Balmer Lawrie, a responsible corporate citizen, strongly values the need for environment protection and constantly partners with various stakeholders to promote environment best practices. 

Setting up of the Composting Unit is a testimony of this initiative.