The piles of bags containing non-biodegradable waste are soon going to vanish from roadsides in Kozhikode city. The shipping containers brought in by the Kozhikode Corporation to store waste for a brief period of time will elevate the aesthetics of the city and resolve other waste-related issues.
The practice of piling up waste collected by the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) on roadsides until it is moved to segregation centres has drawn flak as it often results in problems. As it takes anywhere between a couple of days to months to get the waste moved, the piles often attract more waste.
The bags are sometimes torn apart by street dogs resulting in contents being scattered all around.
“The containers, 20 feet long, are big enough to accommodate 500 bags and hence could hold the waste safely. They can also be locked up,” said S. Jayasree, Health Standing Committee chairperson of the Kozhikode Corporation. The civic body has purchased 25 containers for which ₹55 lakh was set aside. However, a couple more containers would be bought soon within the budget, Ms. Jayasree added. The containers are currently stored in the premises of the Tagore Centenary Hall and are being refurbished.
With the overwhelming response from the public for services of the HKS, around 2,000 bags of non-biodegradable waste are collected from every ward at a time.
The containers being distributed at the rate of one for every two wards, the HKS members get a safe space to store and segregate the waste before being moved to Material Recovery Facilities at Nellikode and Njeliyanparamba.
“We had a hard time convincing local people to give up land for construction of material collection facilities (MCFs), and mostly failed. The containers will function as MCF and that they can be shifted around as needed is an added advantage,” Ms. Jayasree added.
The Corporation is probably the first civic body in the State to use shipping containers as MCFs at such a large scale.
