INDORE: Plastic waste seems to have emerged as the biggest challenge for municipal solid waste management in city, as plastic constitutes around 26% of the waste generated in Indore daily. This was revealed during the on-going observation of trenching ground at Devguradia by a team of experts on the directives of Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court.
Indore generates around 800 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day, while IMC has a capacity to process only around 400 tonnes of waste resulting into mountains of garbage dump at trenching ground.
IMC commissioner Rakesh Singh said a plan is afoot to increase the capacity of processing plant by setting up another plant with 500 tonnes capacity. For segregation of garbage, it would be done at the beginning during door-to-door collection, he said.
However, IMC has no proper plan for recycling of large amount of plastic waste. According to survey conducted by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for the assessment and quantification of plastic waste generation in 60 major cities of the country, Indore was ranked as the largest producer of plastic waste in Madhya Pradesh and the 14th largest across the country.
Asad Warsi of Hostech Eco Management, who was associated with recycling of plastic, said out of 60 tonnes plastic waste generated per day, 20 tonnes is thick plastic, while the remaining 40 tonne constitutes plastic bags and wrappers.
"A large chunk of plastic bags are discarded with municipal solid waste. It is a big problem than it appears. If we have a mechanism to collect such plastic waste and send it to recycling plants, things can improve. A good quantity of the waste can be segregated and re-used. However, due to poor collection, plastic is burnt on road sides along with municipal waste, which causes a high degree of air pollution," said Warsi.
