Recycling machines to resolve plastic water bottles mess

Plastic waste is a major concern worldwide. It takes more than 1000 years for plastic to decompose. Most of the plastic waste is created because of packaged drinking water bottles. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is now devising solutions to curb the proliferation of empty, discarded plastic water bottles. PMC is collaborating with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) units of private firms to install five plastic bottle recycling machines at five busy city spots, which PMC has identified, where most plastic water bottle waste is generated. Some civil and electrical work in underway at these locations, where the recycling machines will be installed very soon. PMC has purchased the first plastic bottle recycling machine recently, which was brought to the PMC building.

Empty plastic water bottles are hard to deal with as users tend to leave the empty bottles wherever they please, and so they need to be collected. Some 1600 tonnes of garbage is generated within PMC limits everyday, out of which 15 per cent, or almost 240 tonnes is plastic.

PMC will install plastic bottle recycling machines at the busiest of spots in the city, like Rajiv Gandhi Garden, P L Deshpande Garden, Pune Railway station parking, Swargate bus depot and Dalvi Hospital, where the volume of empty plastic water bottles is the highest.

Head of PMC solid waste management department, Suresh Jagtap said, “Empty plastic water bottles are one of the major concerns in the city’s waste management. Nowadays many citizens buy packaged drinking water when they’re out of their homes. Many of them leave empty water bottles wherever they can, or they just drop the bottles into available bins. This creates the issue of garbage segregation. It is going to be difficult for waste-pickers to segregate the plastic bottles. Bio Cru, a private company through its CSR fund, is providing plastic bottle recycling machines to the PMC. We have identified five locations like Rajiv Gandhi Garden, P L Deshpande Garden, Swargate bus depot, Pune railway station and Dalvi Hospital, where most empty plastic water bottle waste is generated. These are the locations where we plan to initially install these machines. PMC has received the five machines recently. We have started civil and electrical installation work at the five locations, which belong to the PMC.

The machines will be operated by self-help groups of the city. The private company providing the machines to PMC, will hand the operation to self-help groups of their choice. Right now we are installing only five machines, but we will install these machines at 20 locations in future. The companies can use the recycled waste. It is going to resolve the plastic water bottle disposal issue for PMC, so this is a win-win situation for both PMC and the private companies supporting the project. The recycling machines will be installed at Pune airport and Pune railway station as well.”

tushar.rupanavar@goldensparrow.com

Originally published on The Golden Sparrow