CHENNAI: Chairing a meeting on solid waste management at the Ripon Building on Tuesday, Mayor R Priya urged the officials to use recycling facilities to the fullest and reduce waste being sent to the dump yards.
At present, 5,100 tonnes of waste is collected by the corporation, including door-to-door collection and waste from garbage bins. While these are segregated and part of it is sent for recycling, the rest is dumped in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur.
Priya urged the officials to create awareness among residents to source segregate the waste in order to reduce burden on sanitary workers. Apart from that, officials should also check if the waste is collected properly using the battery-operated vehicles.
She also asked them to ensure that the recycling of waste is done to the full capacity using micro-compost centres, bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plants, centres recycling garden waste, material recovery facilities and resource recovery centres.
From April 4 to 17, the corporation sold 15,543 kg of manure and earned Rs 1.37 lakh. This apart, 2,79,832 kg of dry waste segregated by material recovery facilities and resource recovery facilities were sold for Rs 17.8 lakh during the same period. Steps should be taken to sell existing stock of manure swiftly, added the Mayor.
The corporation has also collected Rs 2.7 lakh as fines from 478 persons who dumped waste in public places, Rs 3.3 lakh fine from 159 persons who illegally dumped construction debris, Rs 53,100 fine from 130 persons for putting up posters in public places, Rs 1.2 lakh fine from bulk waste generators in the same period. While collecting fine is not the corporation’s motto, people should co-operate to keep the city clean, she said.