Tamil Nadu - Tirunelveli   

Non-recyclable plastic waste becomes fuel

TIRUNELVELI: For the first time in Tamil Nadu, using of finely shredded non-recyclable plastic waste along with the coal as supplement fuel in the cement factory on a trial basis was inaugurated in the manufacturing unit India Cement Limited (ICL) at Sankar Nagar near here on Sunday evening.

In the first phase, the non-recyclable plastic waste with the thickness of less than 20 micron, collected from the Tirunelveli and Tuticorin corporations, Nagercoil municipality and Courtallam and Tiruchendur town panchayats will be transported to ICL premises, where it will be finely chopped and mixed up with cashew shell to be used along with coal in the rotary kiln as a supplement fuel.

After the top-brass of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), Tirunelveli Corporation and ICL recently had a discussion in this connection, the corporation forwarded the ‘first load’ of the non-recyclable plastic waste to the cement manufacturing unit on the city outskirts.

Minister for Environment, Youth Welfare and Sports T.P.M. Maideen Khan formally inaugurated it.

“When the thermal power units generated a huge quantity of fly-ash, managing this effluent and protecting the environment from being polluted by this waste matter became headache for the governments. Now, there is a huge demand for fly-ash in the hallow block brick industry and hence, the non-recyclable plastic waste, which is posing a serious threat to us, may become a cheap but useful fuel in the cement industry in the days to come,” said Mr. Maideen Khan, appealing to the public to segregate the non-recyclable plastic waste at source and hand it over to the local body conservancy workers.

As temperature maintained in the rotary kiln is more than 1,000 degree Celsius, there is no danger of dioxin or furan emanating from the plastic waste. The toxic gases decompose at very high temperature, explained Senior Vice-President of ICL S. Nandakumar.

Terming this safe disposal of non-recyclable plastic waste as a “win-win situation” for all concerned, Chairman of TNPCB R. Balakrishnan said it would be extended to other areas such as Coimbatore, Madurai and Chennai in near future.

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