We propose tackling the waste at the source. Koyambedu market has notoriously poor options for storage of food. Most fruits and vegetables keep best in cold, humid conditions; the market, for the most part, is hot and poorly ventilated. In the 1990s, a single cold storage facility was constructed for the massive market complex. Today, it’s woefully inadequate, assuming it functions at all.

Because the market lacks any proper food storage, fruit and vegetables which aren’t sold immediately are very quickly thrown away. This is an unfortunate reality of selling produce, but can be alleviated through accessible adequate storage. Upon receiving shipments of produce, excess which is not expected to be sold quickly can be set aside in storage to wait and be brought out in the following days, still fresh. If we assume an increase from 90% to 95% successful sales of each shipment of produce, we can immediately reduce total waste by 100 tons.

Additionally, the biogas plant does not currently have the capacity to use all of the waste Koyambedu produces. We propose doubling the capacity to accommodate for the remaining waste, and achieve zero waste from the facility.