Mumbaiites discard 121 tonnes of banned plastic in 2 months

Around 17 tonnes were collected from Andheri (west), the highest from any one area.

Mumbaiites have thrown away around 121 tonnes, or 1.2 lakh kg, of banned plastic items over the past two months, said the civic body, which has been collecting them from its special bins placed at 60 locations across the city.

The 20 sqft plastic collection bins have a capacity of about 500 kg each. (HT File Photo)

Data with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) shows that close to 17 tonnes were collected from Andheri (west), the highest from one area, followed by Byculla from where 14 tonnes was collected. Only around 30 kg of plastic was disposed of in Govandi, which has a high cncentration of slums.

Earlier this month, the BMC started a toll-free helpline (1800-222-357) to provide information to citizens who want to dispose plasticitems, as well as to offer a free plastic pick-up service to housing societies that have collected a minimum of 10 kg of banned items.

Only 140 people have called the helpline so far in the past three weeks, of which 59 requested pick-up service from their societies, said a civic official. “The remaining 12 tonnes were collected from markets and shopping areas,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner and nodal officer for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

The discarded plastic items will be handed over to authorised recyclers after a buffer period, Dighavkar said.

With less than one month left for the state government to enforce the ban and impose penalties on users and manufacturers, the BMC is yet to upgrade its awareness campaign and remind citizens of the deadline, which is June 23.