Kerala: Jumbo bid to save tuskers from plastic

Thiruvanathapuram: Forest guards used to frequently report plastic inside elephant poop in most of the 37 elephant corridors around Sabarimala until last season.Things have changed at the hill shrine now after several anti-plastic measures under the banner of Green Sabarimala Mission started by  district administration.

Almost all interstate pilgrim buses that enter Sabarimala now discard all possible plastic wastes at checkpoints at Laha and Vadasserikkara before going to Pampa.

Plastic here is sorted by Kudumbashree workers and sent to a private recycling facility where 90 percent waste is recycled and rest incinerated.

“You need to apply techniques to make pilgrims discard plastic bags. Three-four forest officials stop vehicles and enter the buses with audio in regional languages directing them to abandon plastic in exchange for free cloth bags. Mostly we take the guru swami (group leader) into confidence and exchange a cover. With this, people will shed inhibition and start showering plastic outside,” explained an official.

Around 30 ‘eco-guards’ walk between Laha and Pampa 24x7 to clear plastic debris, if any.

Pathanamthitta district collector S. Harikishore said a ‘carpet campaign’ was started with anti-plastic messages printed in every possible place.

Railway jingles, FM channels and Facebook all are filled with such messages. There are also two counters at Pampa which exchange cloth bags with plastic bags free of cost.

Similarly, efforts are on to control the hazards caused by discarded packaged drinking water bottles and clothes.

Plastic exchange kiosks soon in Kerala capital
The city corporation is waiting for a green signal from the Shuchitwa Mission to establish plastic bottle exchange kiosks across the city, which will pay '2 for every one kg of plastic.

In a longer run, it aspires to install vending machines that give out cash coupons in exchange of plastic bottles like ones used in China.

“Kudumbashree workers will collect the plastic. The Green Kerala Mission will be entrusted to find agencies to take plastic,” said a senior health supervisor.

According to officials, now the plastic collection happens only at four of the 100 wards and the PET bottle waste menace can be easily controlled as bottles come with resale value. The plastics will be collected can be recycled in plants.

 “We will have kiosks which will take plastic waste by paying cash to citizens. The other option will be, they can pay very negligible amount for collection workers. In Beijing, they give metro train tickets in exchange of few bottles. We will have similar scheme in future,” the official added.