Kollam: London team to study clean sea mission

Kollam: The 'Suchitwa Sagaram' project initiated by the state government to clean the seas of plastic waste has won the appreciation of overseas agencies too. A team of volunteers from London working for the NGO 'Plast Save' in plastic waste reduction has reached here to study the project being carried out with the help of fishermen.

The team which held talks with Fisheries Minister J. Mercykkutty Amma here on Tuesday offered shredding machines for the project and volunteered to bear a share of salary expenses for it.

The team included Keralites Rajesh Krishna and Ratheena Harshad.

Mathews from London said the delegation would revisit the project area in October-November. The minister explained the features of the Suchitwa Sagaram project aided by the government.

She said plastic waste from Kollam corporation, Panmana, Alappad and Neendakara panchayats will be collected for processing in the shredding unit.

The team visited the plastic segregation and cleaning unit at Sakthikulangara and the shredding unit at Neendakara.

As per the Suchitwa Sagaram project, nylon bags are distributed to the fishing boats to collect plastic. The fishermen will not throw plastic waste into the sea, including packages which they take. The collected plastic is processed to make plastic beads for use in road construction in association with the Suchitwa Mission.

The harbours have also been equipped with collection points to dump the plastic waste products.