The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has formed 15 save energy groups from 300 households in wards 12 and 15 who will be part of waste-to-energy project.

These groups have started segregating organic solid wastes from their kitchens, which will be converted into energy at the bio-methanation plant set up recently by the KMC in Teku, officials said.

Experts from the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, Solid Waste Management Technical Support Centre, Institute of Engineering, and Center for Population Studies are currently involved in the inspection and operation of the machine for the plant that was imported from India. The plant, which is expected to come into operation within a month, is expected to generate 14 kW electricity.

Eighty percent of the funding for the Rs 18.2 million machine was made by the European Union.

Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of the KMC Environment Division, said the electricity generated from the project will be used for street lights in Teku. For that, the KMC has completed installing the power lines and poles in Teku, he added.

The city of Kathmandu alone produces 450 tonnes of waste per day, of which 60 percent is degradable solid waste.

Thought the project is still in its infancy state, officials at the KMC believe that it could become an effective way to manage Kathmandu Valley’s waste in the long run.