Plastic waste takes wing, litters nearby areas
Solid waste segregation system in Kovai fails to take off
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-10 03:53 GMT
Coimbatore: Plastic waste continues to be a never ending menace despite the efforts the civic body has been taking to contain it. Despite the efforts taken to introduce the Warangal system of solid waste management last year in a bid to emulate the litter free model there seems to be little headway.
In the Warangal model, the conservancy workers warned the households of penalty if they failed to segregate waste at source. The system also rewarded the households and sanitary workers based on effective segregation and disposal.
The plastic, paper and other recyclable material were removed from the waste dump and sold. The proceeds were used for the welfare of the sanitary workers. Even as this is being done in ward 28 at R.S. Puram, it will take a long time to emulate it in the rest of the 99 wards coming under the corporation, said Mr Mathivannan S, of the residential colony near the Vellalore dumpyard.
The plastic waste from the yard flies from the dump and litters the nearby areas. Former mayor S.M. Velusamy, following a trip to Singapore last year, had vouched that Coimbatore would be turned into a garden city and had also emphasised on making it a plastic-free city.
But the city is nowhere close to it, said Mr Mathivannan. An official in the corporation said the conservancy staff did periodically clean the area, but as the colony is close to the dumpyard , the conservancy workers are unable to stop littering.
However, the people of the area maintain that unless scientific closure of the dumpyard is expedited, the living conditions of those close to the dumpyard, where nearly 800 tonnes of waste is dumped every day, will remain pathetic.