Tirupur: The city corporation will soon open a centre to collect electronic and electrical wastes. 

The city, which has more than 10lakh residents, generates about 520mt municipal solid waste a day. As it lacks a waste segregation facility, the corporation has been dumping the wastes in unused quarries, much to the chagrin of local residents. Electronic and electrical parts that consisted of 1-2% of the collected waste also ended up in such places.

After segregating 5mt e-wastes recently, the civic body had sent them to a private waste recycling firm in Chennai.

 

City health officer K Boopathy said that the corporation has entered into a pact with the Chennai-based agency, which is recognised by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), to collect e-wastes generated here. “The firm would directly collect e-wastes from houses and commercial establishments. It would pay for some e-wastes like discarded computer monitors. But people should pay if they handover e-wastes like tube lights.”

 

“We plan to set up an e-waste collection centre in the dollar city. It would be maintained by the private agency. Residents also can reach the centre and handover e-wastes,” Boopathy told TOI.

 

The corporation has also entered into an agreement with another private agency to collect non-biodegradable wastes, the official said. “Of the 520mt municipal solid waste, more than 55% is non-biodegradable. Earlier, we planned to send the segregated non-biodegradable wastes to a cement factory in Coimbatore. But as we had to spend money on transportation of the waste, we abandoned the plan and tied up with the agency that would collect the wastes and send them to a cement factory in Trichy district.”

 

Published On : 30-06-2019

 

Source : Times of India