Kerala - Kochi   

Public-private pact to tackle plastic menace

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

Novel initiative: The plastic shredding unit at Ravipuram being operated by trained women on Friday.

KOCHI: Public-private partnership should be promoted in various fields so that tasks get done more efficiently, said K.K. Narendran, former judge, High Court. Inaugurating a plastic shredding unit here on Friday, he said that residents’ associations should be utilised to get a lot of social and community work done in an effective manner.

The plastic shredding unit set up by the Kochi Corporation, the Kerala Builders Forum and the BPCL Kochi Refinery in a private-public partnership to counter the menace of plastic in the city aims at using the shredded plastic granules in road tarring.

Mayor Mercy Williams presided over the function held at the venue that was renovated for the purpose with Rs.3 lakh.

The two machines, the big one costing Rs.1.28 lakh and the small one costing Rs.65,000, are enclosed in a unit at Ravipuram. Another Rs. 4 lakh would be spend on building a shed for storage of plastics that would be collected here.

The Corporation would pay the prevailing price of bitumen for the shredded plastic to the units which can be used for road tarring. This would also help the unit become self-sustaining. The project aims at using the shredded plastic in making polymerised roads with technical help from the Refinery. To start with, the Corporation has decided to polymerise the road from Manorama junction to Avenue Road at Panampilly Nagar.

According to a note issued by the Mayor on the project, use of shredded plastic granules will help replace 10 per cent of bitumen for tarring and will also increase the strength of the road by five times.

One lakh plastic bags would give 100 kg of shredded granules. The unit will be able to produce 350 kg of shredded plastic granules a day.

Hence the capacity of the unit is to shred 3.5 lakh plastic bags a day. The Corporation has already planned to set up five such units in the city. In the next phase these units will be set up at Edappally, Palluruthy and Fort Kochi.

According to experts, a kilometre of single lane polymerised road requires a tonne of plastic granules. And the strength of the road would be guaranteed for five years.

The initiative for the unit came from the Kerala Builders Forum Clean Kochi Movement started more than a year ago when they had started setting up bio-bins for managing organic kitchen waste in flats.

The plastic collected for shredding should be devoid of any organic waste. For this the Corporation and the Builders’ Forum have held awareness classes through residents’ associations, said the project director of the Clean Kochi Movement, Kabeer Haroon.

Women from poor families have been selected for training to run the plastic shredding unit. Four people would be required to manage one unit.

According to the KBF project director, the trained people are already collecting segregated and clean plastic from a number of households.

Deputy Mayor C. K. Manisankar; Standing committee chairmen of the Corporation Council N. A. Mani (Health); Anil Kumar (PWD); E. M. Sunil Kumar (Town Planning) and other councillors took part in the function. P. s. Vishwanathan, chief manager, Personnel & Development, BPCL KRL; John Manavalan, KBF Clean Kochi and George E. George, chairman, KBF participated. Mini Antony, Corporation Secretary, proposed a vote of thanks

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