Kerala mulls BoT options to light up streets with plastic waste

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Thiruvananthapuram: After banning plastic below 30 microns, the Kerala government is rummaging build-operate-transfer (BoT) options with private players for waste-to-energy technology. And a good many of its civic bodies are open to idea of running street-lights with energy from plastic waste.

Several private entrepreneurs, favouring at least three different unsegregated waste treatment technologies— German, Russian and Korean —are in talks with the state’s energy experts.

‘’A nuanced policy plan will be ready soon, since the alternative for solid waste disposal is a desperate need’’, Kerala local self-government minister, Paloli Mohammed Kutty, told FE. ‘’Ultimately, it’s upto the civic body to pick up its BoT partner,’’ he added.

Unlike their brethren in other states, Kerala civic bodies are cash-flush, lapping up 30-35% of the state’s Plan funds. But the roadblock for the population-dense state is that each civic body will have to earmark at least five acre for processing 30-200 tonne of unsegregated waste per day.

‘’The main development after the ban of plastic below 30m is that just in a fortnight, urban solid waste for disposal has fallen by 30%,’’ says C Jayan Babu, Thiruvananthapuram City Mayor. Last year, Kerala’s capital had experimented with mixing plastic waste with bitumen in three small stretches of roads for durability. This had brought down tar costs by 10%.

Besides foreign technologies for plastic waste treatment, the government is also inspired by the Mumbai-based Asian Electronics Ltd’s (AEL) Rs 128-crore proposal to set up plastic-to-energy power plants at Thane and Rajasthan. On experimental basis, AEL had set up a 2mw power plant at Nagpur.

Not to be left behind, the Kerala Builders Forum and Plastic Manufacturers Association have offered to set up a common plastic recycling facility in Kochi. ‘’We’ll invest. And the revenue can be shared with Kudumbasree women self-help groups, who collect segregated houshold waste,’’ says PJ Mathew, president of the association.

Women SHGs have stepped in with paperbag units to fill the void left by ban of thin plastic bags. ‘’Modifying the single-strand method in coir looms could offer a bio-degradable carrybag alternative,’’ says AC Jose, chairman, Coir Board.

But before zeroing on the technology solution, the government is finetuning the legal aspects of its ban on thin plastic, says TK Jose, state secretary (local self-government). From the current Rs 250 penalty, offenders are likely to be slapped a higher fine, perhaps even Rs 20,000.