Help in plastic buyback, DCs told

Shimla, November 27

To make 54 towns waste-free, urban local bodies (ULBs), including Shimla Municipal Corporation, have been told to buy only non-recyclable and single-use plastic waste at Rs 75 per kg through registered rag-pickers and individual households.

This plastic waste will be used for tarring of roads by the PWD and as fuel by cement firms. The initiative was taken after the NGT pulled up the ULBs, Urban Development Department and pollution regulator for littering the waste in and round towns and rivers. This direction to all ULBs has come from Additional Chief Secretary, Science, Technology and Environment, RD Dhiman today in a video conferencing with the DCs and all stakeholders in the state. CM Jai Ram Thakur launched the policy to buy back non-recyclable and single-use plastic on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Even the SMC and Dharamsala Municipal Corporation have yet to segregate solid waste at the source. None of the 52 ULBs has started the door-to-door collection of the waste, said stakeholders. SMC Commissioner Pankaj Rai said the corporation was compiling the exact data on the non-recyclable and single-use plastic waste in the city. “We have started segregation of waste at source,” he added.

Dhiman said the DCs had been asked to set up collection centres and register rag-pickers. Department of Environment, Science and Technology Director DC Rana said the policy would give remunerative price to rag-pickers. — TNS