A plastic bottle shredding machine has been installed at CA Market, one of the main block markets in Salt Lake, to make disposal of plastic bottles easier for shopkeepers and residents.
Once a plastic bottle is dropped into the machine, it is crushed and released as fine pellets of plastic.
The machine has been installed to encourage shopkeepers as well as residents of CA Block and neighbouring areas to drop used plastic bottles in the machine and not to dump them in dustbins and garbage vats, officials of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.
According to Rajesh Chirimar, the councillor of ward 38 of BMC, the machine can gobble more than 150 bottles a day and produce plastic pellets and chips that can recycled to produce plastic paver blocks. The shredded plastic can also be used in asphalt mix to build roads.
A larger shredding unit will be installed later this year, the councillor said. Chirimar said that he has already approached Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose, who is also the fire and emergency services minister, to help him with funds.
“The trial is being done with the smaller machine. We have asked shopkeepers, especially those who stock soft drinks, to drop the used plastic bottles in the machine. We have also asked residents it use the machine to get rid of used plastic bottles,” said Chirimar.
Once people get used to the machine, a much larger unit will be placed near the Hariyana Vidya Mandir.
India generates 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said at a programme a few months back.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world produces over 300 million tonnes of plastic every year, of which 14 million tonnes end up in the ocean.
