Enthused by positive response shown by the central Government, the Panchayati Raj department is gearing itself for laying the foundation stone of the Common Waste Recycling Facility (CWRF) at Haridwar on October 2.
It is learnt that the union government has in principle agreed on the proposal of Uttarakhand to set up a CWRF at Bhadrabad in Hardiwar district.
In a recent meeting of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) of Ministry of Panchayati Raj in Delhi, Uttarakhand project to make its villages plastic waste free by involvement of self help groups was appreciated.
The Additional secretary, Panchayat Raj institutions, Harish Chandra Semwal confirmed that the unveiling of the plastic recycling plant would be done on October 2. He said that the facility would take at least six to eight months to become functional.
It is worth mentioning here that the project to set up waste compactors in villages has already got approval of the union government. Initially one compactor in one Nyay Panchayat in all 95 blocks would be installed. Later these machines would be installed in all 670 Nyay Panchayats of the state. The objective of the compactors is to reduce transportation cost of the waste to the recycling plant.
These compactors would be operated by Women Self Help Groups (SHG) in the villages who would be trained in segregation and compaction of plastic waste. The villages would earn money by sale of the waste to the recycling plant.
The CWRF would be set up in Haridwar district and for it the department has earmarked a plot of two acres in Alipur village, Bhadrabad Haridwar. The recycling plant would convert the compact plastic wastes transported from villages to durable product termed ‘Plastwood’ and multi layered laminates.
Both these products are commercially valuable and can be used in building industry. The CWRF would be installed at a cost of Rs 3.75 Crore. Incidentally the recycling plant is a green industry and shall be operated in a PPP mode.
After installation of waste compactors and recycling plants Uttarakhand would become the first state in the country where an elaborate mechanism of disposal of plastic waste and its economic usage is set in place.
