From Lodgement to Soil: How the Jammu Municipal Corporation Turned Yatra Wet Waste into Local Resource

The massive influx of pilgrims during the Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra 2026 brings an equally massive logistical challenge in managing daily solid waste. Under the jurisdiction of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), where thousands of pilgrims pass through transit lodgement centres, managing the daily generation of organic waste became a major priority. Across the multiple lodgement centres in the JMC jurisdiction, municipal teams collected and managed an average of approximately 3 to 5 metric tonnes of wet, biodegradable waste daily. Rather than letting this massive volume end up in landfills, the JMC deployed a highly coordinated, dual-track processing system to recycle organic waste directly at the local level. 

At the premier Bhagwati Nagar lodgement centre, the JMC executed a precise, heavy-volume waste-to-resource model. On average, 100 to 110 kilograms of wet waste was collected from this single high-capacity transit camp on alternate days and systematically transported to the Organic Waste Composter (OWC) facility in the Narwal area for large-scale scientific processing. Simultaneously, to distribute the processing load across the city, the JMC implemented an in-house treatment system within other decentralized lodgement centres under its jurisdiction. In these other centres, municipal staff utilized specialized, on-site aerobins to successfully process 50 to 60 kilograms of wet waste daily, turning localized camps into self-sustaining hubs of green technology. This operational achievement successfully diverted tonnes of organic waste from landfills, converting it directly into nutrient-rich compost.

While municipal teams managed the physical waste on-the-ground, the Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) kiosks used these active operations to educate visiting pilgrims on home composting. As pilgrims observed the practical sorting and the working of aerobins, volunteers briefed them on how they could easily replicate these clean habits at home. They were taught how to reuse their household organic kitchen waste, balance green and brown materials, and use simple composting bins to enrich their own gardens without any financial cost. This on-the-ground campaign successfully turned a major sanitation challenge into a powerful educational movement, ensuring pilgrims left Jammu not just with spiritual memories, but with the practical knowledge to reduce waste in their own communities across India.