MYSURU: Mounds of garbage emanating stench, defiling the surroundings and becoming breeding grounds for diseases are a common sight in most cities. While civic bodies and the government are pilloried for failing to clean up these spaces, efforts are being made to look at waste from a different perspective. Claims of making the best out of waste do not seem preposterous after the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) transformed metal waste into artefacts.
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore a sleeveless sky-blue jacket manufactured using material recycled from plastic bottles during the budget session in Parliament that was gifted to him by the Indian Oil Corporation during India Energy Week in Bengaluru. Treading a similar path, the MCC, which has bagged the cleanest city tag in the Swachh Bharat survey twice in a row, is not only showing the way in reusing waste, but is also exhibiting these artefacts at nine parks across the city.
With an enormous amount of metal waste dumped and recovered at solid waste management plants and collected during e-waste special drives, MCC has been able to process the metal items and create 16 artefacts and the project was executed as a pilot.
Mayor Shivakumar told The New Sunday Express that the effort is to make people aware of recycling and waste treatment. “We have plans to create such artefacts by processing used and discarded metal items. This will sensitise people about the importance of recycling, reusing and reducing waste,” he said.
Some of the art works include the mythical double-headed bird Gandaberunda, peacock, Make in India logo, tiger, panda, unicorn, kangaroo, eagle, elephant, lion, and others. They have been displayed at the MCC office and also at the bustling Millennium Circle, apart from the parks.
MCC has tried a similar experiment earlier by joining hands with a city-based company Jagruth Tech to process and convert plastic waste into recyclable products like interlocking pavements and other eco-friendly, durable items.
Spurred by the mantra of making the best use of waste, and combating the plastic waste menace, Darshan C, a city-based youth, started Jagruth Tech which has set up a waste plastic recycling unit in JP Nagar.
The city corporation is following similar innovative programmes adopted by other local bodies across the country. The technology will be scaled up, said some corporation officials.