The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) plans to build a 50 tonne per day plastic waste processing plant as part of its efforts to gradually phase out single-use plastic.
According to the NDMC, the plant will be constructed in Tikri Kalan in accordance with the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 and the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board.
Sanjay Goel, the NDMC's municipal commissioner, said the NDMC is taking a number of efforts to phase out single-use plastic in its jurisdiction.
In an official release, he added that the NDMC plans to build a 50 tonne per day (TPD) plastic waste processing plant in Tikri Kalan. He also claimed that they are in the process of appointing waste management companies to handle the sorting, collection, and transportation of plastic waste for recycling or processing.
Goel said that the NDMC generates or collects approximately 4,500 mt of municipal solid waste each year. He added that about 450 mt of this is plastic waste, which includes both recyclable and non-recyclable components. The NDMC has developed an action plan to work towards eliminating single-use plastic and implement plastic waste management rules in 2016, says Goel. He cited that the waste-to-energy plant at Narela-Bawana uses nearly 350 TPD RDF (refuse-derived fuel) collected from the Bhalaswa site through bio-mining of legacy waste.
An integrated waste-to-energy plant for the processing of municipal solid waste, including plastic waste, is being built in collaboration with IOCL, as per the NDMC.
Goel further added that the NDMC is working with RWAs, market associations, and non-governmental organisations to intensify its fight against plastic waste, which accounts for about 10% of total municipal solid waste.
He goes on to say that the civic body is holding awareness campaigns to reduce the use of single-use plastic for this reason. As per the NGT orders, the NDMC has issued 1,526 challans, seized over 12,930 kg of plastic bags with a width of less than 50 microns, and collected Rs 19.18 lakh in fines until January 31.
