The Hindu        15.11.2011

Corporation for Collector's help

SOLUTION IN SIGHT: Plastic waste strewn on a vacant land near Tamil Nadu Housing Board quarters at Anbu Nagar in Tirunelveli. — Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

The Corporation, with the cooperation of the district administration, has proposed to draw a comprehensive plan to deal with the non-degradable and non-recyclable plastic waste being generated within the limits of the urban civic body and impose a ban on the use of these synthetic material posing serious threat to the environment.

Since the Corporation has to remove everyday 160 tonnes of garbage, including considerable quantity of non-degradable and non-recyclable plastic waste, it signed an agreement with India Cements Limited (ICL) on the outskirts of the city, which came forward to use a portion of this harmful waste as supplementary fuel along with the regular fuel of coal and made some modifications in the machinery on an outlay of Rs. 1 crore so as to accommodate the waste plastic also as fuel.

However, some “practical difficulties” that cropped up midway forced the ICL administration to stop taking the plastic waste from the Corporation, leaving the civic body in a piquant situation.

Meanwhile, people living around the Ramaiyanpatti garbage dumping yard approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court against the prolonged dumping of the refuse, including non-degradable and non-recyclable plastic waste, near their houses.

To put an end to all problems the Corporation is facing from the dumping of garbage at Ramaiyanpatti, it has been decided to award the contract to a Madurai-based company for converting the recyclable garbage into bio manure and green fuel.

Since the urban civic body is yet to identify a strategy to mitigate the problems it is facing from the non-degradable and non-recyclable plastic waste, it has been decided to seek the help of the district administration, which alone can impose ban on the manufacture, sale and use of this artificial material being widely used in the packaging industry.

Announcing this decision in the Corporation council meeting held on Monday, Mayor Vijila Sathyanand said: “We've decided to seek the cooperation of the district administration to deal with the plastic waste, which is a serious threat to the life of the people living within the corporation.”

Kanyakumari model

Corporation sources clarified that while the Collector would be urged to impose the ban on manufacture, sale and use of non-recyclable plastic products as it was successfully done in neighbouring Kanyakumari district, the existing quantity of plastic waste could be used in the road laying projects with the guidance of a Madurai-based professor.