Kochi: Residents of Kalamassery municipality are heaving a sigh of relief on Onam with the Municipal authorities picking plastic waste from the houses since last Saturday. The collection has not been taking place for the past one and a half months after the Kerala High Court asked the Municipality not to dump waste at the Muttom Yard near the highway that abuts a canal that runs into Periyar.
“A private agency has been entrusted with the task of shifting the washed plastic waste to their dumping yard outside the state after the Municipality collected them from the households. This will happen thrice in a month. The waste will be first moved to Muttom from where the agency will shift it to their dumping yard,” said Kalamassery municipality chairperson Jessy Peter.
The chairperson said that the current decision is only to take washed plastic waste from houses and not those like diapers. “Residents also should show the responsibility to reduce waste so that we are able to retain a healthy environment,” she said requesting them to desist from wanton throwing of waste to the waysides. Ms Jessy Peter said that Kochi Corporation has agreed to take only the organic waste which is being currently taken to its dumping yard at Brhmapuram. “We are also planning to start a plastic shredding unit so that the waste can be tackled here itself,” she said.
