Minister for Local Self Government, Rural Development and Excise M.B. Rajesh and Additional Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan, Suchitwa Mission Executive Director K.T. Balabhaskaran, Solid Waste Management Director G. Jyothish Chandran and a team of officials from the Department of Local Self Government and Kozhikode Corporation visited the Plastics to Power (P2P) plant at the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT-C) to discuss about the feasibility of collaboration in the patented technology of NIT-C for plastic conversions.
“We have a waste treatment facility to recycle plastic but the major issue we face is the huge quantity of rejected waste,” said Mr. Rajesh during the discussion with Prof. Prasad Krishna, Director, NIT-C.
The institute had commissioned the P2P plant under the Swachhta Action Plan project of the Union Ministry of Education in 2021. The 20-kg plant uses assorted plastic waste ranging from toffee wrappers to poisonous PVC including the rejects, and converts them to power.
A press release said that the NIT-C is in the process of scaling up the plant to 100 kg/day (3 tonnes/month) to process the total plastic waste of the campus in the initial stages and then to commercialise the same. The visit of the Minister has initiated a discussion between the Solid Waste Management Division, Suchitwa Mission and NIT-C for a collaboration for plastic waste management. The collaboration will help setting up similar scaled-up plants for plastic waste management. Lisa Sreejith, Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Chairperson of the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, who had secured a patent for ‘An Eco-friendly Method for Total Conversion of Plastic Waste to Power Generation’ presented the working of the P2P plant to the esteemed officials.
As much as 89% conversion is made possible and the residue generated is utilised for manufacturing paving bricks and garden pots. Ms. Muraleedharan urged NIT-C to collaborate with the department of Local Self Government to find a permanent solution for waste issues persistent in local bodies in Kerala.
P.S. Shino, Joint Director (Kozhikode) of LSGD; K. Gauthaman, Coordinator of Suchitwa Mission Kozhikode Corporation; M.S. Shamasundara, Registrar NIT-C; S.M. Sameer, Dean (Academic), and Panneerselvam Ranganathan, Vice Chairperson, CST, also attended the discussion.
Published - October 06, 2023 09:32 pm IST
