LWMC Compost Plant / Lahore Compost

Background

In 2004, the City District Government Lahore (CDGL), issued a concession to a private
developer, Lahore Compost (Pvt.) Limited (LCL), to process and compost 500 to
1000 tons per day (TPD) of municipal solid waste (MSW). The project was been setup
on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis, whereby the project was planned to be
transferred to CDGL/MCL after a period of 25 years. LCL completed construction of
the first phase of its composting plant and inaugurated it in April 2006. The CDGL’s
responsibility was to provide a piece of land of about 300 kanals and the continuous
supply of MSW.

After the establishment of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), the liability
to provide requisite amount of MSW to LCL was transferred to LWMC under the
Services and Assets Management Agreement (SAAMA) between LWMC and CDGL.
The project was expected to process more than 500 tons of solid waste on daily basis
while contributing environmental benefits by sequestering the emission of methane (a
major greenhouse gas) generated during anaerobic decomposition of biodegradable
matter.

Transfer of Compost plant to LWMC:

LCL in its letter dated 31st March 2016 highlighted that due to the following reasons,
the LCL was no longer able to comply with the terms of agreement and project
requirements and requested for early closure of the project: -

i. Lack of support from the Government to market compost

ii. Decline in per unit price of Certified Emission Reduction (CER) from € 10
to € 0.3.

iii. Sale of Solid Combustible Material (SCM) became uneconomical due to

reduction in coal prices.

iv. Change in standards/composition of compost by agriculture department

made it unfeasible to produce compost from MSW.

v. LCL has injected Rs. 420 million in the project till 31-12-2015 to bridge the
losses.

Hence compost plant was taken over by LWMC on 30th September 2016 a decided by
BOD-LWMC.

Progress

Compost Plant Operations were started on 25th Nov 2016. Request for registration of
compost initiated in Mar-2017. Whereas, registration of Trade Mark of the product i.e.,

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Beliya, with IPO is also in process. Training of staff for compost testing as per Testing
Standards of Soil Fertility (SFRI), Agriculture Department, Punjab is also conducted.

Trials for quality compost production and its registration with SFRI were undertaken.
Due to non-conformance of quality characteristics of compost, product could not be
registered as compost. In this lieu LWMC wrote to Agriculture Department for revision
of quality characteristics of compost, specifically produced from MSW. Currently,
LWMC processing on average 50 tons of MSW on daily basis.
Developments and Initiatives

 LWMC started marketing of decomposed and stable organic material as

Processed Farm Yard Manure (PFYM) instead of Compost. Samples of product
distributed among nurseries in Lahore to gain market attention.

 Sample bags provided FOC to the Secretary, Agriculture department & Director
General PHA, so that relevant departments may use our product during daily
activities.

 Punjab Industrial Estates Development & Management Company (PIEDMC) was

also contacted and given bags for testing to gain orders.

 Contacts established with PHAs to find out annual consumption of manure.

 Meetings with managements of Country clubs and housing societies for promotion
of Beliya.

 Meeting with Private fertilizer producing companies i.e. Auriga and Engro Group to
explore avenues for PPP.

 Participation in Pakistan Horti Expo 2019 (21st -22nd Jan 2019) at Expo Center
Lahore to highlight our product.

Way Forward

 Enhanced Sales of the product i.e. BELIYA;

 Sales to the Govt. agencies i.e. PHAs, Agriculture Dept., NFML etc.

 Sales to the Fertilizer companies (they can use it as raw material and market it
after improvement in composition).

 Establishment of sale points at appropriate locations in city.

 Sale of the Segregated material i.e. Recyclables and Combustible material - can
be an additional source of revenue generation.

 Registration of product i.e. PFYM as Compost by the Soil Fertility Research

Institute, Agriculture department. (improvements in the product composition)

 Awareness among stakeholders i.e. Organic / Progressive farmers, Nurseries,

PHAs, Golf and Country Clubs, Agriculture Dept., Housing societies etc.

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