90 tonnes of plastic waste collected in Tirunelveli

Thursday, 09 February 2017 07:27 administrator
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The Hindu       09.02.2017 

90 tonnes of plastic waste collected in Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli Corporation launched separate collection of non-degradable waste on Dec. 21, 2017

The plastic collection exercise, carried out by Tirunelveli Corporation on Wednesdays, which attracted Union Ministry of Urban Development’s attention, has ensured collection of over 89.50 tonnes of non-degradable waste from the residents so far.

According to Commissioner S. Sivasubramanian, who conceived the idea of collecting plastic waste from the public on Wednesdays while ensuring removal of other waste every day, said collection of plastic waste by conservancy workers from the residents on a dedicated day (Wednesday) started on December 21, 2017 under ‘Litter-Free Tirunelveli’ programme, and it evoked a very good response from the public. Besides appealing to traders not to stock, sell and distribute ‘use-and-throw’ plastic carry bags and cups that clogged drainage channels repeatedly to cause untold hardship to the urban civic body, the Corporation started exerting pressure on business establishments through repeated surprise checks that led to the seizure of a few tonnes of the banned products.

Moreover, the traders were encouraged to use degradable cloth and paper bags for packing their products.

When the system of plastic waste collection on Wednesdays was introduced towards the end of last year, the sanitary workers collected over nine tonnes of hazardous waste and it increased sharply in the next couple of Wednesdays with the quantum of collection crossing even 13 tonnes.

However, this graph showed downward trend from mid-January, thanks to the awareness campaigns organised by the Corporation against using plastic bags and cups.