A new plastic waste management (PWM) unit has been set up in Pratap Dighi Gram Panchayat (GP) in Patashpur Block of Purba Medinipur District in West Bengal. In addition to cleaning and processing plastic waste in a systematic manner, the facility ensures forward linkages.
The PWMU caters to 398 villages in 3 Blocks of Purba Medinipur District. The plastic waste generated each day is about 2 kgs per village and the average waste that the PWMU receives per day is 240 kgs.
Operated by a Farmers Producer Organisation (FPO) Company which has 520 members, the Plastic Waste Management Unit that was set up in March 2023 will be tagged to two adjoining blocks Patashpur-I and Egra-II. The district administration would be providing a mini truck to the FPO to transport plastic waste from the villages to the PWMU.
The unit does not handle household-level waste collection. Waste is only purchased from local waste collectors or rag pickers and some plastics are also collected from outsourced waste collectors such as Kabadiwalas.
Plastic waste is gathered and segregated systematically before it is cleaned. Thereafter, the hydraulic pressure of the bailer is used by which the plastic waste is compacted into a specific size and cut using a shredder machine into strips and particles of a certain dimension before it is sold to recyclers.
Inputs: Ms. Kaberi Samanta, Purba Medinipur
Swachh Bharat (Grameen) 