Thiruvananthapuram: An increase in a certain kind of waste at the Sports Hub after the India vs West Indies match, made the green protocol team happy. For after the one-day match, the amount of banana leaves, arecanut and sugarcane plates, as well as cloth waste collected was more than that collected after previous year’s T20 match. This meant that many opted for ecofriendly alternatives for plates and glasses. There were 150 kg banana leaves, 750 kg paper, 0.5 tonne of ecofriendly disposables made from arecanut leaf and sugarcane and 40 kg cloth.
Kudumbashree and Poojappura prison, who were the major food providers at the stadium, had stuck to green protocol. “Last year, catering units from Kudumba-shree and prison had not followed green protocol. This time though, they did. Kudumbashree had steel plates and glasses. This helped reduce any disposables,” said an official at Thiruvananth-apuram Corporation.
Sandwiches were handed out in tissue papers, during Thursday’s mat-ch, while biryani was given in arecanut plates.
Officials note that the audience also helped in making the segregation easy. When 255 colour-coded bins were placed at various points in the stadium, the people used those correctly.
Outside the stadium, there were street vendors from Kariavattom to Kazhakkoottam. They themselves cleaned the waste they generated, according to the corporation. Water in plastic bottles was allowed. Over one tonne plastic bottles were collected. Bottles by Pepsico would be taken by the company itself, as per an Extended Produ-cer Responsibility agreement. The rest of the bottles will be recycled.
A huge amount of food was wasted, as the match got over early. They collected 1.5 tonnes of food waste. Other than this, there was 0.5 tonne plastic waste, 750 kg flex waste, 18 kg ceramic waste, 70 kg Aluminium bottles and 2.5 tonnes cartons. Corporation officials collected waste from 7.30 am to 3.30 pm.
