Aafrin Kidwai 
Coonoor’s Ottupattarai waste management park is successfully managing the town’s plastic waste. Over 8,000 kg plastic waste from Ottupattarai was transported to Hyderabad for tertiary recycling. Unusable plastics will be broken into oil, gas and carbon through pyrolysis.
The Hindu reports that during the last two months the garbage dump facility at Ottupattarai has functioned well as a waste management facility, handling nearly 60 tonnes of trash. The current recovery rate of recyclables now stands at 45%, which is sufficient for a Materials Recovery Facility that deals with a mixed waste-stream. Measures are also being taken to increase the quantity of garbage handled, by improving collection of all sorts of trash.
Since the waste management facility was started, disposal of some plastic items, broken glass and glass bottles posed a serious challenge, as there were no organisations or companies willing to accept the waste products.
However, with the help extended by a Hyderabad-based firm, which has agreed to take the plastics from the facility at its own cost, around 8,220 kg was sent as an initial consignment.
Picture Credit: Eggi (Diskussion)eggi, Plastik strandgut, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
