When team expresso reached the WoW hub near Thammanam the supervisor and a contingency staff along with the manager of the project, Royce, were about to start their battle for waste recovery. And we joined them and found out that Kochiites have started earning a few bucks by selling the garbage generated from their households.

“Thanks to the Wealth out of Waste project which helps not only in disposing of the garbage but also to get a reasonable price for the waste,” said A N Unni, resident, Ambelippadam Road.

Wealth out of Waste (WoW) project launched in two divisions of the Corporation is receiving positive response from the residents. It was launched by Sree Sakthi Papers Ltd in association with the ITC Ltd and the Kochi Corporation and is expected to go a long way in waste disposal, both bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable.

The project envisages doorto- door collection of waste including newspapers, waste papers, plastic products like empty milk packets, bottles, empty tooth paste tubes and used tooth brushes, besides metallic waste. On the day we joined them the WoW members went to several households on Ambelippadam Road and collected waste by making payments.

The price for waste paper is Rs 4 per kg, while plastic and metal waste will fetch Rs 2.50 a kg. The supervisor marked the house number, quantity, price in his ledger and made the payment.

“We have launched the programme in ward 41 and 53. It will be extended to all the 71 divisions under the Corporation within three months,” said A Padmanabhan, director (operations) Sree Sakthi.

A carry bag with three chambers has been given to each household through various residents associations for collecting waste. Plastic bags that contain organic waste are cleaned and kept in separate chambers.

The WoW team will visit each household every 20 days to collect waste.

“The waste collected from households will be transported to WoW hubs. Six divisions will have one WoW hub to sort the garbage. A total of 12 WoW hubs will be opened in the city from where waste materials will be transported to recycling factories of Sree Sakthi and ITC,” Padmanabhan added. The programme will be extended to Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kollam Corporations within a year. “We are planning to cover the entire state within two years. It will help to generate direct employment to nearly 10,000 people, he said.

Many projects envisaged by the Corporation for effective management and collection of waste materials had failed to attain the specific goal.

But with effective participation from two private sector companies, this project brightens the hope for a cleaner and greener Kochi.

The eco-friendly aspect of the project is another attraction as it focuses on recycling. The industry requirement of paper comes to about nine million tonnes per year. For producing one tonne paper 22 trees have to be axed. Only 15 percent of paper is being recycled in our country while in developed countries 50 to 60 percent of paper is produced by recycling.

“Our aim is to bridge this waste recovery process considerably,” added Padmanabhan. They are planning to introduce toll-free numbers soon for the public for effective waste management.