Page 20 - CIJ Feb 2024 Digital Edition

Cover Story

value of 2500 and above. These dispose of it on available lands. and municipal corporations,
are the limiting factors. There That mindset has to change. educating them about the plastic
was a guideline released by the K Ganesh: The municipal they are using and disposing them
ministry of housing and urban corporation and the Ministry responsibly.
affairs in 2018 which said that of Housing and Urban Affairs There is a team which can
within a radius of 100km, cement play an important role in source collect and recycle them. This
companies could take the waste segregation. While households do program was started in 2017
at a cost but if the distance was waste segregation, the municipal and we are successfully running
beyond 200km, the municipal waste collector dumps it all it, working with 20 municipal
corporation had to send it to the together in a truck which has a corporations and more than 4500
cement kiln. This is not being single compartment. It goes to housing societies. We work with
followed unfortunately. MRF collection centres or to the premium educational institutions
The transportation cost beyond landfill. all over the country including
200km is too much to serve the The municipal corporation’s Amity, Narsee Monjee, IITs and
purpose of what we are doing. latest notification states that all IIMs, wherein we inculcate the
Kaustubh Phadke: Plants corporations should have their habit in the youth, telling them
in Jaipur, Indore and Vellore material recovery facilities, that that any material they use must be
have an agency that has set up a the segregation must happen properly disposed for recycling
waste segregator plant within the properly, that only the wet waste later. We are changing the mindset
MSW processing facility. If you goes for composting and dry of people and we have reached
are generating 100% municipal waste to the respective recyclers. eight lakh people through this
waste, around 18-20% is an It could be glass, corrugated sheet, programme. It is an ongoing
RDF (Refused Derived Fuel) plastic bottle or even pouches that process.
which is neither biodegradable go to the right stream for getting How can the municipal
nor combustible. The agencies recycled and you will get a value
segregate, reduce moisture product out of that instead of corporation ensure
content and send it to the cement burning it in an incinerator. segregation at source?
plant in bail-form. The cement
companies in turn have put up When you talk about Kaustubh Phadke: Getting
shredders to shred the material the economics of waste, uniform quality waste is first and
making it fit to be mixed with foremost. Municipal corporations
coal or pet coke. It is then sent to what can be done at need to enter performance-based
the cement kiln. Not all municipal homes for segregation? contracts with the waste processor
corporations have made that effort What kind of initiatives as it is an outsourced activity.
because they find it convenient to Since the maximum amount
do you think the of plastic is PET at least 95%
municipal corporations of plastic gets segregated. The
can take? plastic component doesn’t enter
RDF. Then can it not be recycled
K Ganesh: EPR regulation and reversed? However, even that
was introduced during 2018-19. material is going to the landfill
It is applicable for large and and consuming space.
medium-scale industries, but In Nashik, the corporation
not for the 70-80% of small and has contracted with an external
micro industries in India. That agency. There’s a clause in the
needs to be controlled. As a contract that measures how much
responsible company, we RDF can be generated and sold.
have a program called ‘Bottle This works to the advantage
for Change,’ wherein we are of the corporation, as the there
approaching schools, colleges, is no money received by the
corporations, universities, corporation. The plant is operated

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