THE TIMES OF INDIA Nalsarovar, a plastic swamp

By Himanshu Kaushik, TNN | Feb 6, 2013, 03.17 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: Nalsarovar, Gujarat's onlyRamsar Site - designating a wetland of international importance - faces a new and daunting problem. About 8,000kg of plastic including water bottles, bags, and wrappers have been removed from the lake. A special drive was taken up by the forest department to make the lake free of plastic. After the drive was initiated, the department has, with the help of boatmen, ensured that no waste is dumped into the lake or its surroundings. "We have been asked to collect all plastic waste in boats and once tourists are out, the waste has to be deposited in dustbins on the banks of the lake," said Budhabhai Ajabhai, a boat contractor. Earlier, boatmen did not take any environmental precautions, nor did they stop tourists from throwing waste into the lake. But of late, there has been a change and boatmen are asking tourists to dispose of garbage in boats, which are later cleaned. Some boatmen have even started keeping makeshift dustbins in boats. "Along with schoolchildren and some voluntary organizations, we had carried out a cleanliness drive," said the deputy conservator of forests Sasi Kumar. "We have now asked vendors in the periphery of the lake to place dustbins so that tourists do not litter all around." Kumar said that tourists needed to be more respectful to environment sites like Nalsarovar. As for the garbage, he said it was properly incinerated so that it does not damage the environment any further. A senior officer from the state forest department said, "The idea to clean the lake came when local staff and boatmen saw a couple of incidents in which birds tried to catch fish but snared plastic bags instead." A similar drive has been implemented in Thol and a huge amount of plastic has been removed. Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) C N Pandey said, "When I visited the sanctuary, I saw plastic all around and hence instructions were issued to make lakes free of plastic. We will put up signages so that people do not litter."

Plastic waste - A slow death for human life and nature

Jan 23, 2013, 04.37AM IST

It's not too late for Goa to do something about it. The action can be taken at all levels of society. Many many years ago, I would go to the market every day and make sure I returned with at least one plastic carry bag, so that I could line my garbage bin with it, as it was so convenient, leak proof and made emptying the bin so much easier. So each day there would be one large carry bag that took care of the fish, one for vegetables, one for fruits and another one for other groceries. That would total to at least 2-3 bags a day. Then one day, I saw a cow horribly mooing in pain with remnants of plastic still sticking out of its mouth, perhaps from consuming leftovers disposed off in a plastic carry bag. Coincidently, at the same time I came across an image sent by a friend by email of a dead pelican whose gut was full of pellets of plastic. Another one followed where a crow building its nest with plastic strands had got its neck entangled and eventually choked itself. That was the last straw for me. In a colony of 74 flats, perhaps we are the only ones composting all our wet waste in a terracotta 3 tiered contraption. But many of the residents now that they are aware of the possibilities want to take care of the garbage that is generated instead of seeing it dumped in a landfill. We have now installed a composting station and are keen to reap in good manure for our plants. Perhaps there are others who are using cloth carry bags whilst shopping and consciously recycling all their newspapers, milk packets, plastic, biscuit wrappers, tetrapaks, etc. But that's still a small percentage making a choice and affecting a small change. Imagine this scenario- Goa has a population of 15 lakh excluding the floating population of migrant labour, tourists and expats, and we are all victims to the 'plastic carry bag' syndrome which implies an approximate consumption of 15 lakh plastic carry bags a day! Every part of Goa is littered with this nuisance. Even our forest villages have succumbed to its menace. If you haven't noticed yet, little plasticislands have slowly begun to make an appearance everywhere. Like the ones that have formed in our oceans. And we carry our junk to litter even pristine lands. A recent visit to Savari waterfall in Netravali proved just that. Huge piles of picnic waste- plastic, beer cans, silver lined paper plates, chocolate wrappers, the works. Isn't it shocking that we are indifferently using a single use throwaway plastic carry bag and letting it ruin our environment? Are we aware of its repercussions? Perhaps we are realizing it now, 20 years of using this wonder material that it simply doesn't disappear. One can chuck it in somebody else's backyard, a vacant patch in the village or the adjacent one, or in the storm water drain nearby, or the adjacent creek or the river or even behind an unused building! Only to realize that it just doesn't disappear. It resurfaces floating on the river, flying across the road, scattered across the open fields, stuck to low branches on the

river banks or in the gut of an unsuspecting animal. And only recently have we realized that it is also poisoning our ground water, stifling our soil, contaminating our food, affecting our livestock, marine life, even the air we breathe, because we have now begun to burn it in a desperate bid to rid from its sticky mess. This will eventually only kill us all.

Civic body turns role model for recycling plastic waste

Christian Mathew Philip, TNN Sep 17, 2012, 07.18AM IST

CHENNAI: Municipal bodies across the country are struggling to deal with plastic waste, but Chennai Corporation has emerged as something of a role model for plastic waste collection and recycling. Corporation officials said they collected almost 615 tonnes of plastic from various parts of the city since February. The civic body is relaying nearly 1,200 stretches of road with a combination of plastic and bitumen. But a shortage of shredding machines and malfunctioning devices has meant that the corporation could only shred 39 tonnes of plastic for the road tops against a target of 800 tonnes. A senior corporation official said the civic body has saved more than 600 tonnes of plastic waste. "Our shredding machines have unfortunately developed some technical glitches so we have only been able to shred a small fraction of the plastic we collected ," he said. Plastic waste has to be shredded before it is mixed with the bitumen . Corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan said he has instructed all zonal offices to increase shredding of plastic collected. "We have decided to use the plastic-bitumen mix in more interior roads and on bus routes," he said. "We will fix the machines that are not working so we can use the plastic that is piling up in the zonal offices." Three of the civic body's 15 zones, Manali, Teynampet and Adyar, have not yet started shredding and 73.84 tonnes of plastic collected is being stored in the offices of these zones. Other zones like Tiruvotriyur, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Kodambakkam, Alandur and Perungudi have shredded less than 1 tonne of plastic waste each. Anna Nagar zone has collected the most plastic waste, with nearly 112 tonnes, but Royapuram has shredded 11 tonnes, more than any other zone.