Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: The civic body is losing around Rs 14 crore annually in revenue due to its failure to segregate plastic waste from the solid garbage.

An official of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation told The Telegraph that 600 tonnes of solid waste were generated in the city every day - of which 30 tonnes are plastic waste. If the price of plastic waste is calculated at the prevailing rate of Rs 13 per kilogram, the corporation could earn Rs 3.9 lakh every day. Annually, the amount translates to over Rs 14 crore.

According to official sources, the corporation's failure to implement the Plastic Waste (management and handling) Rules is contributing to the loss in revenue. The corporation's rules and regulations clearly hold the civic body responsible for the safe collection, storage, segregation, transportation, processing and disposal of plastic waste. It has to ensure that no damage is caused to the environment during the process.

The rule also entrusts the civic body with the task to ensure setting up of collection centres for plastic waste, besides engaging agencies or groups, including waste pickers, deployed for waste management.

However, the lack of mechanism to segregate plastic waste from solid waste has benefited the scrap dealers, who have been buying plastic waste from rag pickers at throwaway prices and then earning huge profits by selling those to neighbouring states such as Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, official sources said.

At present, the civic body is spending Rs 60 crore annually to handle and manage solid waste - which involves the transportation of waste to the dumping yards.

"At present, we lack proper mechanism to segregate and recycle plastic waste. Though we have been asking scrap dealers to help us in plastic waste management, we are not getting their support," said an official.

Environmentalists feel that the civic body should develop a mechanism to recycle the plastic waste, which contributes to environmental pollution in a major way. "The civic body should come up with a plan to recycle the plastic, which would not only help them in generating revenue, but also ensure that the environment remains pollution-free. Plastic never decays and leads to soil pollution, besides chocking the natural drainage channels," said environmentalist Bijay Mishra.

Several other cities, including Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore in Karnataka, have set example by using molten plastic for the construction of roads. Molten plastic is being used as a binder to enhance the binding capacity of bitumen, which is used for laying roads.

The procedure includes segregation of waste plastic in the form of thin carry bags, pet bottles and later cleaned and cut to 1.18mm-size using shredding machines. Later, the plastic is heated up to a temperature of 165 degrees Celsius and the molten plastic is mixed with hot bitumen.

A state pollution control board official said molten plastic waste would save Rs 30,000 towards construction of a 1km road.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the civic body would shortly come up with a waste treatment plant, which would segregate solid waste, including plastic waste.

"We are also planning to pay incentive to rag pickers for collection and deposit of plastic waste. The civic body has also been creating awareness among the citizens to not use polythene carry bags," said Jena.