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.