Residents of Mumbai suburbs join hands, churn plastic waste to fuel

On Sunday morning, she came together with about hundred others in front of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation with bags full of used plastic products, which was donated to be decomposed into polyfuel – a fuel similar to diesel.

For the past five months, Dombivli resident Vaishu Joshi has been preserving plastic waste. The 45-year-old will not even get rid of used plastic cutlery because she does not want her family to add to the city’s garbage woes.

Residents help gather plastic waste to be sent to Pune. (HT)

On Sunday morning, she came together with about hundred others in front of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation with bags full of used plastic products, which was donated to be decomposed into polyfuel – a fuel similar to diesel.

“It is better to recycle plastic than send it to dumping grounds. This way, we can get rid of it without polluting the environment,” said Joshi.

Over two tonnes of plastic waste was collected in the drive conducted in Dombivli and Thane. According to Urjaa Foundation, the organiser, a large number of people had come up to donate their plastic waste.

“The response was good in our first drive, conducted in December 2016. As the word spread, more people began to turn up at our centres with plastic waste,” said a member of the foundation.

The waste collected included milk packets, shampoo sachets, medicine strips, toys, bottles, food containers, biscuit wrappers and more.

The waste will be sent to Rudra Environmental Solutions, a company in Pune, which uses plastic to produce polyfuel.

Medha Tadpatrikar, co-founder of the company, said that it would take a day for them to convert the plastic collected from Thane and Dombivli into fuel. “It will take about four hours for the waste to reach us and once it is put into the decomposing machine, polyfuel can be generated within seven to eight hours,” she said.

She added that 100kg of plastic could produce about 50 to 70 litres of fuel, which is sold to villagers in Pune at Rs38 a litre as an alternative to kerosene, wood and coal.