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.
