The Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation has converted 3 tonnes of trash into organic fertiliser and sold it a year before Patna Municipal Corporation realises its dream of converting the city’s trash into fuel and electricity.

“Of 10 tonnes of fertiliser made from municipal waste, we’ve so far sold 3 tonnes in a month,” Muzaffarpur municipal commissioner Sanjay Dubey told The Telegraph on Thursday. “We have a trademark and are selling the fertiliser under the name of Muzaffarpur Jaivaik Khad. We are making is mostly from green waste (wet garbage, mostly kitchen waste that includes vegetables).” Five kg packs of the fertiliser are sold for Rs25.

“The National Green Tribunal and Central Pollution Control Board strictly bans reckless dumping of garbage,” Dubey said. “By making fertilisers out of municipal waste, we’re mainly complying with the NGT and CPCB order.”

The Muzaffarpur body is using technology to expedite the process. “A shredding machine worth Rs 4.45 lakh, purchased from Delhi, and an electric sewer machine worth Rs 4.15 lakh from Vadodara, are installed,” Dubey said.

“The shredding machine shreds wet garbage into small pieces so that decomposition of wet garbage into organic fertiliser is hastened while an electric sewer filters the finest particles, which are then dumped into a pit to make compost. A solution containing lactobacillus bacteria, yeast and photosynthetic bacteria is added to the pit. Decomposition that normally takes four months gets over in just a month because of the chemical.”

The Muzaffarpur fertiliser has 50 times higher organic value than that made by Kerala Municipal Corporation. Dubey said the Centre for Science and Environment tested the compost created by different civic bodies and said humus potassium content, urea, sodium levels were much higher in the Muzaffarpur sample. “A person who recently purchased 5kg of compost from us purchased tonnes of it on Wednesday,” Dubey said.

Asked how much waste is required, Dubey said: “From 100kg of green waste we get 40kg of fertiliser.” The civic body generates 180 metric tonnes of green garbage daily.

Madhubani paintings adorn the compost pit site. “It’s the country’s most beautiful compositing site,” Dubey said.

“Madhubani painters had been roped in to make the designs at the site.”