The Corporation, still in the dark about how to dispose of the organic waste generated in the city with the Vilappilsala plant remaining closed, has some hope on the plastic waste disposal front.
The civic body has arrived at an understanding with the Bangalore-based Green Transit Renewable Energies, which has come forward with an offer to collect and process plastic waste from the city.
Final round of discussions was held last week by the city Corporation and the Suchitwa Mission authorities with the representatives of the company regarding the setting up of a pyrolysis plant for processing plastic waste.
The plant with a capacity to process 10 tonnes of plastic waste per day is proposed to come up near Thonnakkal on the land leased out by the Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust. As per the agreement reached between the Corporation and the company, the Corporation will provide segregated, cleaned and dried plastic to the company, which will use it as a raw material for the pyrolysis plant.
“This is entirely a private project coming up on a private land. The State government and Corporation have only agreed upon providing plastic waste to the company. As of now, there are no financial deals between the company and the Corporation. The plastic waste will be provided free of cost,” an official of Suchitwa Mission said.
Soon to take off
Mayor K. Chandrika said the project was expected to take off within a couple of months soon after the pyrolysis plant was constructed at Thonakkal.
“Once this project is implemented, we will be able to collect plastic waste from every household in the city. We can employ Kudumbasree Clean Well unit workers for the work,” Ms. Chandrika said.
G. Murali Krishnan of Green Transit Renewable Energies said the “100 per cent eco-friendly plastic pyrolysis” plant would decompose the plastic waste into furnace oil, carbon black and natural gas. “Furnace oil, which can be used for boilers or refined further into liquid petroleum products, will be the major by-product of this pyrolysis plant. Around 35 per cent of the residue will be carbon black and around 12 per cent will be natural gas,” he said.
“While furnace oil and carbon black can be sold out, we will be using the natural gas to run the plant, making it a self-sufficient project in terms of energy. All kinds of plastic waste and even rubber and used lubricants can be processed in the plant,” Mr. Krishnan said.
He said the construction of the plan would begin within a fortnight of signing formal agreements. “We have similar plastic pyrolysis plants in Maharashtra, Gujarat, New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. The plant coming up in Thiruvananthapuram will be a Rs.2.64-crore project. The construction of the plant is expected to be completed in 60 days,” he said.
