Almost two months since the announcement by the City Corporation, the project of piloting plastic shredding units at three locations still remains just that - an announcement.
Discussions were held and site identification was done in October itself, but to date, the Corporation’s estimate preparation is moving at a snail’s pace. When contacted, officials at Suchitwa Mission, which has to provide the technical nod, said that the estimate and proposal are yet to reach them. “During the site visit, the engineers in the Corporation were directed on how the project has to be planned. The technical sanction can be given soon after the Corporation submits the proposal,” said Suchitwa Mission director M Dileep Kumar. At the same time, the Corporation officials claim that they have prepared the estimate and only facilities for starting the units are left to be arranged.
There is also an official version that the project has hit a roadblock as a result of the non-viability of installing shredding units and hence the civic body is considering a plan to collect the plastic waste, stock it at specific points in the city and hand it over to agents to be ferried away.
Earlier, it had been announced that the shredding units will come up at Manacaud, Chalai and Palayam. While the facilities were to be provided by the City Corporation, waste collection and segregation were the tasks allotted to Kudumbashree workers. It was also planned to arrange facilities to wash the plastic waste and separate plastic, metal, glass and e-waste.
In addition to the areas where Kudumbashree workers are collecting plastic waste at present, there was a move to cover more city areas. The plan was to use the plastic waste for road tarring works by the Public Works Department.
In 2012, in an attempt to deal with the plastic waste, two shredding machines were set up at Palayam and they have been lying defunct since the inaugural.