VIJAYAWADA: In a bid to increase the efficiency of the current plastic recycling plant at the Ajit Singh Nagar dumping yard, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is going ahead with installing more machinery and a new unit. Speaking to TNIE, VMC Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh said, “We want the city to be plastic-free at the earliest and recycle plastic at a faster pace. Hence, we are coming up with the new plant.”
The United National Development Programme (UNDP) and Hindustan Coca-Cola (HCC) have been entrusted to financially support the project, by building a shed for the machines. “VMC is building the new shed in an area of 7,000 square feet, which will roughly cost `20 lakh, while we will provide the machinery and the E Sree Foundation will run the project,” said UNDP and HCC project director Srikrishna Balachandran.
The new unit will have a conveyor belt in addition to the existing four machines- dusting machine, grinder, Aglo machine and gatta-making machine. The conveyor will be used to segregate the plastic mechanically. However, there would not be any cut down on employment, said Asrar MM, chief functionary of E Sree Foundation.
The capacity of the new plant to recycle plastic will remain same (five tonnes per day) as the old one. The old shed will be vacated and used for storage of recycled and about to be recycled plastic. The recent downpour had resulted in collapse of the plant’s roof and caused minor problems in the machinery. Over 50 tonnes of plastic is left to be recycled as the unit is under repair for the past 10 days. However, in another 10 days, the repair works will be completed, Venkatesh said.