The Hindu 19.02.2010
Plastic waste keeps piling up
Jiby Kattakayam
| Kudumbasree workers directed not to collect it from houses |
Lone surviving plastic collection depot wound up
Corporation to set up a plastic recycling plant
Kozhikode: With Kudumbasree workers not collecting plastic materials in several places in the city, and the ban on plastic bags coming into effect from March 1, the problem of plastic waste dumping looks set to return. But officials are firm that plastic will not be collected and have been urging citizens to curtail its use.
However city residents complain that several essential food products like milk and perishable and processed foods come in plastic sachets, bags and bottles. These are piling up at homes due to the directions given to Kudumbasree not to collect them and this will soon become a health hazard, they feel.
Recently, the lone surviving plastic collection depot in the city at West Hill wound up due to opposition from neighbouring institutions and residents. Three years ago another plastic collection depot at Kallayi closed down due to protests. With no space available for plastic collection, the Corporation is moving quickly to set up a plastic recycling plant at the West Hill Industrial Estate. But this project will take at least two years to fructify according to the most optimistic estimates.
A Rs.20-lakh project to construct a building for the recycling plant is expected to be approved by the District Planning Council in its meeting on February 20. Funds for the plant machinery will be allocated in the 2011-12 financial year.
Corporation Health Officer Beena Kumari says the use of plastics including bags, cups and plates have begun to shoot up in recent times after falling significantly a few years ago. “The Njelianparamba plant can only treat bio-degradable material. After the West Hill depot was closed down we have no place to take the waste plastic to. The Corporation is trying to engage private agencies to collect plastic materials from homes or residential associations,” she said.
“People demand the best facilities in cities but they oppose a waste-disposal unit, a slaughterhouse or vegetable market coming up in their immediate surroundings,” said a Corporation engineer.
Sub-depots that the Corporation had set up at Nadakkavu and other places to make it easy for people to deposit their plastic wastes were closed down following complaints from neighbours.
