More than 1.5 tonnes collected from Ooty shops

Thursday, 22 June 2017 10:37
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The Hindu         22.06.2017  

More than 1.5 tonnes collected from Ooty shops

Udhagamandalam Municipality officials conducted an awareness programme on Commercial Road recently.Rohan PremkumarRohan Premkumar  

UMC vehicles will collect the waste every week and take it to the DRCC in Khandal

After informing all 1,200 shops and commercial establishments to segregate their waste, especially plastic and dry waste, so that it can be collected and recycled, the Udhagamandalam Municipality (UMC) began collecting the waste from shops and store owners from Wednesday.

According to UMC Commissioner (in-charge), V. Prabhakaran, the response from shopkeepers has been astonishing, with more than 1.5 tonnes of dry waste being collected on Wednesday, which was then taken to the Dry Resource Collection Centre (DRCC) in Khandal and recycled.

The Udhagamandalam Municipality had ordered that all shops and commercial establishments in Ooty Town segregate their plastic waste and leave them outside their stores so that the municipality can collect them at source on a weekly basis.

The Municipality Commissioner, along with sanitary inspectors conducted awareness programmes for the shops along the Commercial Road, Garden Road and other areas in Ooty Town since last week to get their message across.

According to sanitary inspectors, V Srinivasan and M Maharaja, more than 1,200 shops from the town have been asked to segregate plastic waste and leave them outside their stores for the municipality to collect. UMC vehicles will collect the waste every week and take it to the DRCC in Khandal.

The DRCC was unveiled by the District Collector, P Sankar in January of this year. The centre hosts a plastic shredding machine, where collected plastic is shredded and used to make roads. The CSR initiative, which is being undertaken by ITC, is called “Well Being Out of Waste.”

V Prabhakaran, the municipality commissioner, has directed all shops and stores to not discard their waste inappropriately and called on all business owners to cooperate to ensure that the UMC's stated “Zero-waste policy” goals are achieved.