MYSURU: In a bid to reward pourakarmikas of the city for their service, the Mysuru City Corporation will launch a ‘waste to wealth programme’ through which they will be able to earn cash in exchange of solid waste at a centralized unit in the city. Under the scheme, a recycling-cum-segregation unit has been set at Bannimantap which will be run by National Traders, a recycling company.
Pourakarmikas will collect solid waste, including articles like chip covers and plastic bottles and hand it over to the centre in Bannimantap where they will be paid cash according to the weight and the nature of the material. The corporation has already fixed rates for different kinds of articles.
“The workers will be earning a minimum of Rs 100 a day from the scheme depending on the waste handed over to the centre by them. Through this, we are aimed at creating a centralized system to tackle solid waste as eventually, we want the entire solid waste generated by the city to pass through this system,” said D G Nagaraj, MCC health officer.
According to him, even though the pourakarmikas are already selling much of solid waste collected to small vendors, such vendors are ill-equipped to handle thin plastic discards like potato chips covers and biscuit covers.
“Such articles cannot be recycled, smaller recycling units usually burn them causing harm to the environment, but our Bannimantap centre will segregate and bale (compress) them and send it to cement factories where they are fed into incinerators for scientific disposal. We will also use them in asphalting roads and other recyclable materials like plastic bottles will be sent for recycling,” said Nagaraj.