The Tiruchi Corporation collected 75 tonnes of non-degradable waste from domestic and commercial establishments on Wednesday.
It was the first day of collection of non-biodegradable waste such as plastics, bottles, plastic bags and others since the corporation launched the source segregation of waste on Monday with the aim of improving efficiency in solid waste management and garbage collection.
It was announced that private traders and residents should segregate degradable and non-degradable waste at source itself. They were barred from dumping non-degradable waste in dustbins kept on streets by the corporation. They were asked to hand over non-degradable waste to sanitary workers on Wednesdays, who would visit each and every street to collect waste.
The initiative is said to have been well received by residents. The residents, who had kept non-degradable waste generated in bags separately during the last few days, handed the waste to sanitary workers.
Commissioner N. Ravichandran said that the initiative had received good response from the residents. As per the records available from 195 garbage collection centres, about 75 tonnes of non-degradable waste had been collected on Wednesday. In turn, entire waste had been sold to interested traders for recycling usages. Awareness programmes would continue for a month to impress upon source segregation.
