Households, restaurateurs in fix as food-waste collection goes haywire in Thiruvananthapuram

Owing to more restrictions, service providers are unable to deliver waste to pig farms in TN
An official with the Sreekanteswaram health circle said service providers are unable to collect and deliver the waste to pig farms in Tamil Nadu owing to increased restrictions.
An official with the Sreekanteswaram health circle said service providers are unable to collect and deliver the waste to pig farms in Tamil Nadu owing to increased restrictions.
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Waste management in the state capital has gone haywire with the Tamil Nadu government imposing more restrictions on the cross-border movement of food waste to pig farms.

Private service providers engaged by the corporation and the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) members deployed for door-to-door collection of biodegradable waste are cutting down on regular services, landing residents and bulk-waste generators in the state capital in a fix.

Authorities have been flooded with complaints from residents. “For the last one week, we have not been receiving the regular service of HKS. The neighbouring wards are facing similar issues. HKS members now collect waste on alternate days. Moreover, many residents are not able to hand over the waste as the collection happens during the day, as opposed to the regular morning activities of the HKS,” said Suresh G S, secretary of the Kaithamukku Residents Association.

An official with the Sreekanteswaram health circle said service providers are unable to collect and deliver the waste to pig farms in Tamil Nadu owing to increased restrictions.

“It’s a problem. Haritha Karma Sena members only collect non-biodegradable waste from households. The civic body is planning to implement a bio-composter project for household waste,” the official said.

The decentralised waste-management initiative of the civic body has failed terribly due to lack of maintenance of existing community waste treatment mechanisms and the absence of new ones. Sreekanteswaram ward councillor P Rajendran Nair said the community biogas plant in the ward, which can cater to at least three wards, has been lying defunct since 2015.

“We were the first among the hundred wards to implement and successfully operate the project for four years. The civic body is not maintaining these facilities,” said Nair.

Councillors are running from pillar to post to arrange alternatives. The Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA) recently met the mayor and health authorities seeking resolution of the issue.

“We are managing the crisis for now, but daily collection of waste from hotels and restaurants have stalled. We need a more stable system and the mayor has promised to convene a meeting next week to find a solution to the crisis,” said B Vijayakumar, district secretary, KHRA.

Corporation to rope in local farms

A senior corporation official said that the civic body is seriously considering roping in pig farms within the district to tide over the crisis. “We will soon be floating a tender to rope in pig farms in the district,” the official said.

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