KOCHI: The waste management scenario in the city is going into a nosedive with Kochi Corporation deciding to stop collection of non-biodegradable waste from households. Till this week employees of the Corporation collected all sorts of waste, which are segregated by the households into separated bags, every day. From now on the bag with plastic in it will have to wait till Saturday for its trip to the waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.
The Corporation says the problem won't be huge as the waste collection will be resumed by end of the week. "At present, the trucks carrying waste are unable to enter the Brahmapuram plant due to certain infrastructural issues. We will sort out the issue in a week and waste collection will resume as it was before," said T J Vinod, deputy mayor of the Corporation. He said allegations that the plant in being overburdened are false and that the issue is not as big as it is made out to be. But, the Health Standing committee chaiperson Minimol V K says that waste collection of plastics on a daily basis won't be hit. "The Brahmapuram plant cannot handle too much plastic wastes in its present capacity as close to 90 tonnes of plastic waste is being generated every day. We have only tried to control the amount of plastic waste that comes into the plant," she said.
The opposition says that the issue is far bigger than what the deputy mayor or the health standing committee chairperson says. V P Chandran, councillor from Champakkara, says that contrary to the deputy mayor's claims the Brahmapuram plant is overburdened to deal with plastic waste. "There is no effective way to deal with plastic waste at the plant. But the solution is not to stop the collection of plastic waste from homes as that would lead to garbage being dumped in the open," he said. "The problem is not just with Brhamapuram plant. The Coporations' trucks are in bad shape and they cannot be depended for garbage collection," says K J Antony, the opposition leader of the Council. He says that the waste collection at Fort Kochi beach is in very bad shape and the beach itself looks like a garbage dump. Chandran added that the Health Standing committee will visit the plant on Tuesday to get a better picture of the issue and would discuss the solutions.
Kalamassery Municipality had to face a similar situation in February when plastic waste remained uncollected for weeks.