Organic Waste Converters in Lower Parel, Mumbai.

Restaurants and malls in Lower Parel produce wet waste every day, in volumes that rise sharply at weekends. Under MCGM's rules for bulk waste generators, a large complex is expected to deal with that waste on its own site, and space for a converter must be found in a building where every square metre earns rent. We measure waste by source, choose a compact converter that fits a service bay, and set up collection from kitchens so the machine receives food waste rather than mixed garbage.

Lower Parel was the heart of Girangaon, the mill district, where textile mills with tall chimneys stood among workers' chawls. As the mills closed through the 1980s and 1990s, their compounds were sold and rebuilt under the city's mill-land rules, and the area is now a cluster of office towers, malls, hotels and high-rise flats. Some mill walls, chimneys and chawls remain between them. Plots are compact and built to the edge, and the railway and flyovers cut through. The rebuilding is not finished; redevelopment of older chawls and buildings continues around the mill compounds.