Material recovery facility inaugurated in Shahdara South Zone 

New Delhi: Plastics are the backbone of globalization and the enabler of modern lives; they are present in our everyday items like the toothbrush or credit cards. But their environmentally safe disposal is becoming increasingly problematic. Currently India is estimated to generate 26,000 tonnes of plastic every day which consists of 80% recyclable plastic and 20% non-recyclable multi-layer plastic. However, only 30% of the plastic is recycled while the rest is often found littered on the roads or in drains contaminating our surroundings. 

To tackle the issue of disposal of plastic waste; East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), SBI-Card and Payment Services Ltd., and Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA), collaborated in a unique association to establish a Material Recovery Facility or a Dry Waste Collection Center in the Heart of East Delhi, as a part of SBI-Card’s CSR Initiatives. The facility is first of its kind innovative approach for developing a sustainable value chain for collection, segregation and thereafter channelization of plastic waste for recycling to enable a circular economy for dry waste.

The Dry Waste Collection Center has been established at Ward No. 21E, Shahdara South Zone, Geeta Colony Delhi and the facility was inaugurated on the 29th of June, 2021 by Sandeep Kapoor, Counsellor, Krishna Nagar and Vikas Anand, Commissioner, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in the presence of Ashish Jain, Founder. Director IPCA and representatives from SBI Card. The inauguration ceremony was followed by tour of the facility for the dignitaries.

Sandeep Kapoor appreciated the collaborative model for plastic waste management and Vikas Anand added that more such collaborative efforts were required in the society to make a difference on ground in the domain of waste management.

Jain as director of IPCA pledged to continue such efforts along with sensitization of public towards the problems of incorrect disposal of waste and encourage more household to segregate waste for effective recycling.

The Dry waste Collection center is ready for operations and has a capacity of handling 2 Metric Tonnes of dry waste per day. The main function of the facility is to segregate dry waste into different categories and then compact the segregated waste to reduce the volume of waste. The operations are semi-mechanized and two types of machinery is used to conduct operations. First is a semi-automatic Segregation Conveyor Platform, used for segregation of waste which can be operated simultaneously by upto six people, to segregate different grade and/or categories of dry waste. Second is a Vertical Hydraulic Baler, used for compaction of waste into bales. The machine utilizes hydraulic pressure and can compact waste items like paper, plastic, cartons, cloths into compact bales of 20 kg to 150 kg. The segregation and compaction process help reduce the cost of storage and transportation and aide in effective recycling of waste. 

The recycling of waste can be done through an authorized recycler or at the upcoming recycling facility to be established in the next part of the project. The recycling facility will then develop consumer products from recycled plastic waste for completing the circular value chain.