The Hindu 27.07.2013
Get gold coins, watches in exchange for trash
The Chennai Corporation will collect 48 tonnes thin
plastic waste from residents, every day. The civic body has announced
rewards, ranging from half-gram gold coins to wrist watches, for
residents every month in each of the 200 wards in the city.
However,
the residents will not get money for the plastic waste collected, said
Mayor Saidai Duraisamy on Friday at the Corporation council meeting.
Each
of the 200 wards will have a dedicated worker to collect thin plastic
waste from residents on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m. The residents will get a token after handing over of the plastic
waste to the engineers concerned.
One resident in
each ward will be selected every month for distribution of the gold
coins. Five other residents will receive wrist watches each. The civic
body will incur an expenditure of Rs. 18 lakh for three months on a
pilot basis.
The amount of thin plastic waste dumped
per day in the city is 96 tonnes. This is two per cent of the total
waste generated in the city.
The illegal sale of thin
plastic bags was brought under control after more than 300 registered
units and hundreds of unauthorised units were regulated after the civic
body’s intensive drive last year.
Plastic bags with
less than 40 micron thickness have been banned, as per the provisions of
the Centre’s notification on Plastic Waste (Management and Handling)
Rules, 2011.
However, retail outlets in the city continue to procure plastic bags with thickness of less than 20 microns.
The
bags are transported from other parts of the country. The civic body
proposes to focus on source segregation as it is unable to control the
movement of illegal plastic bags.
