There seem to be few takers for waste management in the
local bodies as only Nedumbassery panchayat has so far submitted a plan
for waste management to the District Suchitwa Mission, even though the
projects are heavily subsidised.

Even as waste
management issues are worsening across the State, the local bodies are
in no haste to adopt these measures in the district. According to the
District Officer of the Suchitwa Mission, the projects would take time
to reach the implementing stage. The local bodies need to go through a
procedure that would take months, he said.

Except for
Maradu Municipality that has a tie up with a private party to collect
plastic waste, no local body has started a proper plastic collection
system. Tripunithura Municipality had bought a unit using the last Plan
funds but the functioning of the unit that has a capacity to process 250
kgs of plastic for eight hours a day has not been regularised.
Municipal chairman R. Venugopal said that awareness on disposing plastic
and its collection will be taken up soon.

Thrikkakara municipality also has a shredding unit but the collection is not thorough, said the Municipal secretary.

Every
household generates plastic waste as it is the major packing material.
It continues to mix with other organic waste and is either burnt it with
paper or buried with other organic waste creating an environmental
hazard involving both air and land pollution. No plastic shredding unit
has been provided through the Suchitwa Mission to any agency so far
though the government subsidy is 80 per cent of the project cost.

In
the case of setting up biogas plants, the Corporation has taken a step
by submitting projects for 54 schools and 6 colleges for either biogas
plants or vermicomposting. Eloor Municipality will be setting up two
biogas plants of varying capacities.

Till the last
financial year, only 10 out of the 84 panchayats had taken up any
project in waste management and most of them were small projects. Only
the Paravur Municipality had taken up a common project costing Rs. 68
lakh.

Perumbavur Municipal chairman K.M. Abdul Salam
believes that a common waste treatment plant can be an only solution.
The decentralised system is a non-starter, he said. However, concerted
efforts to create awareness have brought down the waste collection in
the town from 15 tonnes a day to 3-5 tonnes a day.

Earlier,
only BPL people were given subsidy to adopt projects through the
Suchitwa Mission. However, now all people can avail the subsidy to set
up a project. The numbers of service providers’ list under the Suchitwa
Mission have also risen from 18 to 60 agencies. Now people can choose
what is more suitable from a wider variety, said P.K. Alexander,
District Officer of the Suchitwa Mission. He said that creating
awareness is a slow process and people need to change attitude towards
adopting better waste management processes.