Tiruchi City Corporation has sent around 350 metric tonnes of single use plastics for being used as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to Dalmia Cements over the past 45 days, since it renewed the agreement with the cement manufacturer a few months ago.
The plastic wastes were collected from the Resource Recovery Centres (RRC) in the city. The collected plastics are sent to the Dalmia Cements where it will be used in the kilns of the cement manufacturing plant. This prevents the plastic waste from being dumped at the Corporation’s garbage dump at Ariyamangalam, the sources said.
Every day, a garbage truck of the Corporation s transports six to eight metric tonnes of the plastic waste from the RRCs situated in Ambedkar Nagar, Manalvarithurai, Pillaiyar Nagar, Pasumai Poonga, and Konakkarai covering all five zones in the city corporation limits.
The plastic waste that is sent to the cement factory comprises “non-recyclable plastic” and “multi-layered plastic” which are typically used as packaging for potato chip snack packets and carry bags among others which are collected daily from households in the Corporation limit.
As opposed to “recyclable plastics” which usually comprises old PET bottles and discarded plastic buckets, “non-recyclable plastics” cannot be recycled. Hence, these plastics are shredded into thin strips at the collection centres, packed in the lorries and sent to cement factories to be converted into fuel.
The Corporation has been adopting the practice for the some years now and of late the collection of non recyclable plastic waste has gone up by around 10% a day on an average, sources said.
Currently, around six to eight tonnes of “non-recyclable plastics” and around 15 tonnes of “recyclable plastics” are collected at the RRCs. The capacities of the RRCs are planned to be increased, the sources added.
“This is a part of the continual action that the Corporation is undertaking to dispose non-recyclable plastics,” said T. Manivanan, City Health Officer.
Published - September 27, 2024 07:54 pm IST
