The Hindu               27.12.2013

Civic bodies enmeshed in mountains of plastic waste

The Public Work Department’s (PWD) novel initiative to
add plastic as a component in surfacing roads is unlikely to be a
panacea for civic bodies with the majority of them lacking scientific
collection and disposal system to deal with the ever increasing menace
of plastic waste.

Of the 11 municipalities in the
district, only Tripunithura and Thrikkakara have some system in place
but then even they are finding plastic waste management a challenging
task.

Tripunithura municipality has been operating a
plastic shredding unit for the past two years. “We could get rid of
about 300 sacks of piled up shredded plastic thanks to the PWD project.
But this is going to be no relief unless PWD expands the project by
procuring necessary infrastructure. Even then, the PWD demand would be
restricted to about three months when road surfacing is underway and for
the rest of the year, we would still have to cope with the problem,”
Tripunithura Municipal Chairman R.Venugopal toldThe Hindu.

The municipality has been giving the shredded
plastic free of cost to a private party. But that accounted for just
about six tonnes of plastic waste, leaving the municipality to cope with
the remaining 14 tonnes in a month.

Recycling unit

Thrikkakara
municipality recently added a plastic recycling unit with 300-kg
capacity at a cost of about Rs. 20 lakh on finding its shredding unit
inadequate to deal with the problem. “The effectiveness of the unit can
be known in another two months’ time. Of course, we can give plastic to
PWD provided they helped meet our operational expenses,” said P.I.
Mohammadali, who recently stepped down as the chairman of Thrikkakara
municipality.

Aluva municipality has been storing the
plastic waste at a godown for an Edayar-based industrialist to buy it
at a price of Rs. 3.5 per kg. The municipality, which generates about
two tonnes of plastic waste in a month, faced a problem when the buyer
failed to collect the stock for about five months.

“We
have included proposals for two shredding units in our budget and are
expecting to set them up in another six months,” said Municipal Chairman
M.T. Jacob.

Angamaly municipality has been
collecting plastic waste and selling it for Rs. 2 per kg, which was far
from adequate to deal with the problem. The municipality is looking at a
proposal for setting up a plastic shredding unit for which Rs. 3 lakh
has been allocated. But the proposal is still in the early days.

In
Kothamangalam, biodegradable and plastic waste are being set fire from
time to time at its dumping yard spread over three acres in the absence
of any facility to deal with the problem of waste. “We have received
sanction from the government for setting up a plant for both solid and
plastic waste and have been granted Rs. 1.60 crore. But tendering the
work calls for an increase of 20 per cent more for which we have
approached the government,” said Chairman K.P. Babu.

Muvattupuzha
municipality is pinning its hope on a proposal worth Rs. 1.14 crore for
the modification of the dumping yard and setting up of a plastic
shredding unit. “At present, the un-segregated waste is being dumped and
covered with earth. About seven tonnes of waste are generated in a
month of which plastic accounts for 25-50 per cent,” said Chairman U.R.
Babu.

Maradu municipal Chairman T.K. Devarajan hoped
to have a plastic shredding unit approved by the Suchitwa Mission up and
running by the next financial year to deal with about 500 kg of plastic
waste generated in a month.

Kalamassery municipality
is looking at piled up plastic waste in its dumping yard. Chairman
Jamal Manakkadan said that the problem would be resolved once an
understanding is reached with Suchitwa Mission for collecting it.

Chairman
K.M. Abdul Salam said that Perumbavur municipality is striving to
reduce the generation of plastic waste through awareness campaigns and
strict enforcement of rules in the absence of any system for its
collection and disposal.

Almost a similar situation
prevails in Eloor where plastic waste is not collected at all. “The
budget has proposed a plastic shredding unit for which the government
had granted Rs. 8 lakh but we would need another Rs. 9 lakh to set it
up,” said Chairman Joseph Antony.

In North Paravur, a private agency has come to the rescue of the municipality by buying the plastic waste for Rs. 1 per kg.