The Hindu 08.04.2010
Corpn. begins collection of non-recyclable plastics waste
Special Correspondent
| Cement company near city to test the waste as fuel in its furnace |
Photo: K. Ananthan 
FINDING USE: Gunny bags full of plastics waste that the Coimbatore Corporation collected from across the city and kept at the Vellalore compost yard on Wednesday as part of a new component of the solid waste management programme. —
COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation has begun the collection of plastics waste, of the disposable type, as part of its solid waste management project.
As a trial run, the plastics waste will be handed over to ACC Limited (formerly Associated Cement Companies Limited). The company will use it in its furnace and the entire waste will be gasified, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said on Wednesday.
The Corporation handed over nearly 1,500 kg of plastics waste to the company on Wednesday at the compost yard of the civic body at Vellalore.
A similar project was on in Tirunelveli and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had called upon the Coimbatore Corporation to implement it here also, the Commissioner said.
Only the non-recyclable plastics would go to the furnace. While re-cycling was an option for disposal, the non-recyclable ones were a source of concern for the pollution control board and the local body. Plastics were non-biodegradable. And the non-recyclable ones compounded the problems in disposal. A solution was now available in the form of the furnace at the cement factory.
But, the company would first check whether the plastics waste provided on Wednesday was worthy of use. The company would sign a memorandum of understanding with the Corporation only if it was convinced that the city could provide it with the waste it wanted.
Meanwhile, the Corporation was getting the basic collection system ready. The Commissioner had ordered the distribution of 100 gunny bags (of 10 kg to 15 kg capacity each) to each of the 72 ward offices in the city. The target for each worker was 20 kg of plastics waste a day.
“While this is one strategy to prevent the city being littered with plastics waste, the other one was to shun the use of plastics, especially carry bags,” the Commissioner said. “We will encourage people to use cloth, jute or paper bags. We are considering the option of bio-bags for meat stalls,” Mr. Mishra said.
“Meat waste cannot be mixed with garbage. It can be stored in these bags and handed over separately to the Corporation workers. The waste can be buried along with the bags as these are biodegradable,” he explained.
