Better waste mgmt: LMC to set up 10 material resource recovery centres

Material recycling facility is a plant that separates and prepares single-stream recycling material. The focus of LMC is on reducing, recycling and reuse of plastic and other waste.

Lucknow To improve solid waste management in the city, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has decided to set up 10 material resource recovery centres for proper segregation of usable material from waste.

Effective segregation of waste means that less waste goes to the landfill which makes it better for people and the environment (Pic for representation)

Municipal commissioner Inderjeet Singh said, “Material resource recovery is also called material reclamation facility or material recycling facility. It is a plant that separates and prepares single-stream recycling material. The focus of LMC is on reducing, recycling and reuse of plastic and other waste. Besides this, the experiment of educating residents to segregate waste is a success as it is going to help us in managing organic and inorganic waste disposal.”

He said, “An MRF is an essential component of any city’s residential and commercial single-stream recycling programme. Indore has adopted this method to treat its waste in a better way.”

“MRF has proven to be a boon in terms of increasing the quantity of recyclable material being diverted from landfills. Material recovery facilities sort a wide array of recyclable things, like glass, bottles, plastic, cardboard, metal containers, aluminium, steel cans and cartons,” said Inderjeet Singh.

He said, “The LMC has started educating the residents about segregation of organic and inorganic waste. Initially we started with a block of 100 houses but now awareness has reached more than 1600 houses. Slowly all the residents would be educated. Waste segregation basically means keeping wet and dry waste separately so that dry can be recycled and wet can be composted. The government is very serious about this. According to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, the citizens are responsible for segregating waste into three distinct categories like wet, dry and hazardous. That’s why we are educating people to segregate waste. Residents are supposed to hand over the segregated waste to the waste collector.”

He said, “Effective segregation of waste means that less waste goes to the landfill which makes it better for people and the environment. It is also important to segregate it for public health. Hazardous waste can cause long term health problems, so it is very important that it is disposed of correctly and safely and not mixed in with the normal waste coming out of one’s house or office.”