Page 58 - Plastics News April 2023

IN THE NEWS

Coimbatore corporation to use plastic waste to pave an eco-way

is added to bitumen. It will also help
to address the ever-increasing plastic
waste in garbage," Prathap said.
The idea was mooted in the corpora-
tion budget presented in the council
on March 31. 20 lakh was allocated
for the initiative.
A health official said there is no harm
in using plastic if it is disposed of safely.
"The first step for safe disposal starts
with people segregating waste and
COIMBATORE: The city corporation ration official said. handing it over to garbage collectors.
is planning to solve the mounting cri- To start with, 5% of plastic will be Throwing garbage in an open environ-
sis of plastic waste by using it to build mixed with bitumen to lay some roads ment harms water bodies and causes
roads. on a pilot basis, corporation commis- soil pollution."
s a first step, the civic body is sioner M Prathap said. "Upon success- The civic body is spending crores of
Aplanning to install a plastic shred- fully laying the first batch of roads, it rupees to separate plastic waste from
der machine at a cost of 20 lakh. "Res- can be scaled up," he said. unprocessed garbage dumped in the
idents should hand over waste after In rural areas, it is mandatory to use Vellalore dump yard. "The segregated
segregating it into dry and wet waste. 30% of plastic waste for laying roads waste from the yard is being sent to
The plastic waste obtained from dry under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sad- cement factories, where it is used as
waste will be collected and shredded ak Yojana. refuse derived fuel, in place of coal,"
into pieces. It will be mixed with the "The roads last longer when plastic the official added.
bitumen while laying roads," a corpo-

Mumbai NGO bags Recycling Heroes Award

Chosen from among 400 entries from
60 countries, Project Mumbai is the
only Indian organisation in this cat-
egory to have won this award, which
was announced on March 18, World
Recycling Day.
The Mumbai Plastic Recyclothon in-
GO Project Mumbai and its ini- spires citizens to donate plastic waste gifted to children volunteers and civic
Ntiative The Mumbai Plastic Re- month after month, which is recy- schoolchildren. Started in 2018, the
cylothon has received the Recycling cled into amenities such as benches, Mumbai Plastic Recyclothon has been
Heroes Award 2023. From London- garbage bins, pots and pencil boxes. featured in the Limca Book of Re-
based Global Recycling Foundation, The benches have been placed at civic cords (2020) as one of India's largest
the award carries citation and a cash gardens, schools and housing socie- citizen- led plastic recycling initiatives.
prize of $1,000. ties, and the pencil boxes have been

58 PLASTICS NEWS April 2023