Ramky Group on Wednesday outlined plans to set up a $100 million (Rs.450-crore)integrated waste management complex here in technical partnership with the diversified ITC Ltd.

The Chairman of Ramky Group, Mr. A. Ayodhya Rami Reddy, said “we plan to develop this as a model project in Hyderabad and hope this would be something not only us but other developers could replicate.”

Speaking to newspersons here today at ITC’s WOW-Wealth out of Waste initiative in association with Ramky Group, Mr.Reddy said that the idea is to not just collect garbage and segregate but also reuse it in a meaningful way be it waste paper, glass, plastics or wood and also use other municipal wastes for power generation.

The Divisional Chief Executive of ITC Limited., Paperboards and Speciality Papers Division, Mr. Sanjay K. Singh, said “the WOW project taken up in collaboration with Ramky has made quick strides. We averaged about 3000 metric tonnes of waste paper per month last financial year and plan to increase this to about 5,000 mw per month during 2011-2012.”

“Given such a good progress we have made, we hope to increase this to about 10,000 mt/month within two years. Such a quantity is good enough to support an independent new paper mill. From waste paper, about 80 per cent of new paper can be made. Therefore, Ramky and ITC will take up a new paper mill from waste paper within two years,” Mr.Singh said.

“The new paper mill using waste paper as input would need an investment outlay of about Rs.200 crore. Ramky Group and ITC are keen to take up this project,” Mr. Sanjay Singh said.

Mr.Jogarao Bhamidipati, Vice President, Commercial, ITC Paperboards, said “the WOW project has been taken up in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore and within few years become a pan-India project. A third of the garbage dump is re-cycle able wherein paper is a major component. The youth who collect and segregate paper earn about Rs.5000 a month.”

“The WOW project also helps school going children with books made from recycled paper. Our aim is to support 25,000 students,” Mr. Jogarao said.

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