Carbon Neutral Meenangadi The intiative by the Meenangadi Grama Panchayat of in the field of Solid waste management is a model to all Grama Panchayaths in the District. Meenangadi Grama Panchayath is situated in the centre part of the district in between major urban centres and Sulthan Bathery. The National Highway 766 which connects Calicut to Mysore passes through the Menangadi Grama Panchayath major commercial establishments of Meenangadi, Total area: 53.52 sq.km and Grama Panchayath office is also situated along Population- 33450 this highway. Meenangadi Grama Panchayath is on Male – 16624 the way to achieve the status of Carbon Neutrality Female – 16826 in the district and also a pilot Panchayath in this Households 8199 regard. The purpose of this project is to propose sector wise adaptation and mitigation strategies to develop Carbon Neutrality by carrying out a carbon emission and sequetration analysis in the sector of transportation, energy, waste, livestock, etc. The concept of Carbon Neutral Community puts forth the notions of zero carbon development and food-energy self sufficiency at local governemnt level. Zero Waste Zero waste and zero emission is one of the important pillars of Carbon neutral Meenangadi project. The green house gas emission from the mixed biodegradable wate generated in the public and commercial areas in the panchayath were about 20% and from households were 80%.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Suchitwa Mission, Local Self Governmental Department. Govt: of

Composting of organic waste and agricultural waste is the back bone of the process of enriching levels of soil carbon. Waste contributes 948 tonnes of carbon per year and it accounts for about 3% of total green house gas emission in the

panchayath.The Meenangadi grama panchayath collects about one tonne of waste per day from its commercial area and markets. A 2 unit (4 bins) of aerobic composting method (Thumboormuzhi model) is installed in the centre of the town, near krishi bhavan for managing the biodegradable waste generating in the town and commercial establishments. For managing the non biodegradable waste generating in the panchayath, a material collection facility centre and plastic shredding machine were installed. By using haritha karma sena the cleaned and seggregated non biodegradable wastes are collected and transported from houses, commercial establishments and institutions to the material collection facility centre. The seggregated and cleaned plastic waste which was collected by haritha karma sena were then shredded using shredding machine and used for 250 metre tarring of Kolagappara road by LSGI

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Suchitwa Mission, Local Self Governmental Department. Govt: of Kerala