Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation has tied up with super markets in the city to initiate ‘bring it back’ campaign by which customers can return empty plastic covers of products purchased from
supermarkets.
Mayor V K Prasanth held a meeting with various stakeholders here on Tuesday and the supermarket owners have agreed to open counters for collecting clean, dry plastic covers. This will then be collected and transported by corporation by levying a user fee of Rs 5 per kg.
‘Bring it back’ campaign is most likely to be launched in August. The corporation has also held talks with barber associations and has decided to introduce slab-based user fee for periodic collection of hair from
barber shops and beauty parlours.
The waste from barbershops will be removed once in two weeks and a user fee of Rs 100 has been fixed for shops with two seats. The fee for shops with four seats and above four seats will be Rs 200 and Rs 300 respectively.
The health wing is embarking on bring it back campaign in supermarkets as part of implementing extended producer responsibility which makes the producer responsible for collecting the waste.
Supermarkets will open a collection counter with the tag ‘Bring it back’ and customers can return the empty covers of various items.
With barber shops and
tailoring shops being brought under dry waste collection campaign, the civic body has ensured periodic collection of around 13 types of dry waste making it the first civic body in the city to put in place a collection system for different types of non-biodegradable waste.
At present corporation has prepared dry waste collection calendar for plastic bottles, plastic carry bags, glass bottles, glass waste, used leather bags, sandals, e-waste, tablet strips, medicine bottles, hazardous waste, rubber waste, coconut husk, coconut shell and the like.
Collection of tablet strips and medicine bottles were the latest addition to dry waste collection drive. The corporation had started collection drive for tablet strips in February, 2018.
The health wing is also finalizing a plan to dispose of thermocol waste in association with a private firm.
The representatives of tailors’ association did not take part in the meeting held on Tuesday.
The corporation has decided to conduct a free collection drive for cloth bits from tailor shops which shall be used for making mats.
