With no solution in sight for the capital’s garbage woes, a special meeting of the Corporation council on Friday decided to intensify source-level waste management and eradication of plastic.
As a part of this, the Corporation will soon roll out Phase II of an initiative to supply pipe-composting units to homes, Mayor K Chandrika said. The units will be set up in all 100 wards of the Corporation under the aegis of the recently-formed ward-level protection councils.
The Corporation also intends to inaugurate a campaign to ban plastics from January 1 next year.
Circle-level talks (four wards comprise a circle) for sorting out the confusion that surrounds the pipe-composting project will be kicked off on Monday, according to Health Standing Committee chairperson S Pushpalatha. Also, councillors from both fronts had drawn attention to the confusion regarding this project.
Councillors, health officers and representatives of Kudumbashree Cleanwell workers will participate in the meetings. There was also a demand in the council meeting that a policy to manage solid-liquid wastes should be devised.
Leader of the UDF opposition in the council Johnson Joseph said that for successfully implementing source-level waste management, each ward has to identify space for biogas plants.
The Corporation has set up 46,585 pipe-composting units by spending Rs 2.86 crore till now. Waste management facilities were established in 108 apartments. At Cotton Hill GHS, Manacaud Government High School, SMV School and Pattom GHS, biogas plants were established and the construction of the plants at the Kazhakkoottam and Peroorkada markets are underway.
Many of the councillors also put forward suggestions on eradicating plastic waste. Towards this, a month-long campaign is planned this month. After discussions among the traders, political parties and Kudumbashree workers, the latter will be trained to manufacture cloth bags which, it is hoped, will gradually replace the ubiquitous plastic carry bags.