: The plastic recycling unit at West Hill has become yet another of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation’s much hyped projects that had to be shut down owing to neglect. The project that was started in June 2012, has been abandoned by the contractor, K. Amir, three months before the expiry of the contract with the Corporation.
A human chained organised by the UDF councillors of the Corporation at the dumping yard of the unit on Friday drew attention to various issues associated with it, the most important of which being the tonnes of plastic and other waste heaped on the 50-cents plot along Beach Road.
As per the contract taken up by Mr. Amir, the Corporation was supposed to provide security to the dumping yard and provide a roofed shelter to keep the collected plastic waste apart from the basic amenities.
He had filed complaints in 2013 as well as in 2014 that the Corporation did not keep its end of the deal in exchange for recycling the plastic waste collected from all over the city. He issued a final notice in August 2015 following which the unit was shut down citing huge financial loss to the contractor.
Incidentally, he had not even paid the Rs.9 lakh tax to the Corporation.
With the closure of the unit, the compound is filled with tonnes of plastic waste, that needs to be recycled. The Kudumbasree workers engaged in waste collection have no way out other than burn the plastic that they collect, as only biodegradable waste can be taken to the waste management unit in Njeliyanparamba
