A large quantity of plastic waste that does not find its way to the garbage bins eventually clogs drainage pumping stations across Kolkata, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has found.
The KMC is planning a special drive to spread the word that plastic waste will have to be dumped into designated bins and not littered around.
A team of senior officials from the civic body’s solid waste management department led by mayoral council member Debabrata Majumder, will visit each of the city’s 16 boroughs to find out why plastic is not getting dumped in enough quantity during garbage collection.
A meeting of the borough officials and the solid waste management team is scheduled for Saturday at Santoshpur, which is part of Borough XI.
“We would like to talk to everyone, including the ward councillors, the waste collectors and the residents and find out the hurdles in waste management,” Majumder told The Telegraph.
Every monsoon, heaps of plastic waste get deposited at the pumping stations, resulting in slower dispersal of accumulated water.
“Almost all drainage pumping stations, including Ballygunge, Mominpore, Jinjira Bazar and Dhapa face the problem of plastic bags getting wrapped around pipes, filters and machinery,” said a senior official of the drainage department.
“Many people carrying wet garbage in plastic bags have been dumping the whole thing in green bins. The contents of the bag must go into a green bin and the plastic bag should go into a blue bin, meant for non-biodegradable or dry waste,” a senior official of the solid waste management department said.
The city generates around 4,500 tonnes of waste daily and just about 60 per cent of it was getting collected following the waste segregation drive.