A team of Government high officials including CEOs from the 6 City Corporations (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet) visited Waste Concern’s Joint Venture Compost plant located at Bulta, Roopganj, Greater Dhaka. The team was headed by Mr. Naim Ahmed Khan, Project Director  of Urban Public and Environmental Health Sector Development Program (UPEHSDP) & Joint Secretary. More than 31 participants attended the exposure visit. The overall impact of the UPEHSDP is to improve the public and environmental health conditions in the urban areas of Bangladesh, particularly in the six city corporations (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Sylhet).

A. H. Md. Maqsood Sinha, Co-founder and Executive Director of Waste Concern and Mr. Sharifur Rahman, General Manager of WWR Bio Fertilizer welcomed the delegates in the Bulta plant.  The visiting team reached Bulta plant at 11:30 pm. Mr. Sinha gave a power point presentation entitled `Waste Concern & World Wide Recycling BV: Composting with
Power point presentation on the project by Mr. Sinha

Public Private Partneship & Carbon Credit, where he explained about the problems of solid waste management in South Asian Cities, explained how the project is linked to carbon trading and also demonstrated the total composting process using a video documentary of Bulta compost plant. Mr. Sharifur Rahman shared his experience of compost quality, its application and marketing.

Compost Plant at Bulta, Roopganj, Greater Dhaka

Compost plant at Bulta, is a part of the joint venture project of Waste Concern and World Wide Recycling BV of Netherlands. It represents the first compost project registered successfully with UNFCCC and the first organic waste recycling project in the world to claim carbon credits. To implement the project, Waste Concern and World Wide Recycling BV created a joint venture company entitled WWR Bio Fertilizer Bangladesh Ltd. The project is anchored on a 15-year concession agreement between Dhaka

City Corporation (DCC) and WWR Bio Fertilizer Bangladesh, Ltd that was signed on 24 January 2006. The significant features of the project as described in the terms of the concession agreement are as follows:

– WWR Bio Fertilizer Bangladesh, Ltd has the exclusive right to collect 700 tonnes of organic waste (in phases) from different markets and areas of Dhaka City on a daily basis.
– Three compost plants will be established around the city.
– Vegetable waste from the market is collected using the project’s own transport networks and taken to a compost plant that is built on land owned by the project. For the collection of waste by WWR Bio Fertilizer Bangladesh, Ltd, DCC will make no payment.

Compost plant at Bulta is the first plant out of three plants to be established. Bulta compost plant, commenced construction on 25 November 2008, has a 130-tonne-per-day capacity. It is located in Bulta, Narayanganj (25 km south-east of Dhaka City). The plant involves high technology and well planned arrangements for the production of quality compost. It has a weigh bridge for fully loaded 10 ton trucks, pre-treatment, pre-composting, maturing, screening, compost storage areas, leachate tank and a comprehensive rainwater harvesting system along with administrative units and conference hall. The plant has created jobs for 130 workers with health insurance and special provision of day care center for the staff members. The plant is selling its compost product to a private marketing company ACI Limited with country wide distribution channel.

All the participants were happy with the experience and requested Waste Concern to support their respective cities with technical support. During the vote of thanks on behalf of the visiting delegation, Mr. Naim thanked Waste Concern to expose them with the both theory and practical aspects of the world’s first carbon trading based composting project. Mr. Naim also requested Waste Concern to assist the consultants of the UPEHSDP during the design phase.