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.