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Corporation stops using plastic water bottles

It replaces them with steel tumblers

Acting on a government directive, Mangaluru City Corporation has stopped using plastic water bottles. In addition to doing away with the menace of plastic bottles, the civic body is expected to save between ₹ 2 lakh and ₹ 2.50 lakh annually from this move.

The civic body has replaced plastic bottles with steel tumblers, as one-time investment.

According to Madhu S. Manohar, Environment Engineer of the corporation, the corporation has purchased 200 steel glasses, 50 steel jugs, five steel trays and two steel containers. Each container has a capacity to store 50 litres of water. It cost the civic body about ₹ 35,000.

He said that so far the corporation purchased about 20,000 plastic water bottles of half litre and 250 ml capacity annually for using them in meetings of the council and four standing committees and in other programmes.

The council and the committees held a minimum 60 meetings annually. Purchase of plastic water bottles cost the corporation between ₹ 2 lakh and ₹ 2.50 lakh. Now, water could be collected from water filters installed in the corporation, stored in the steel containers and supplied during all meetings.

The corporation stopped using water bottles for the first time in the council meeting on Saturday last. Instead, steel glasses and jugs were used. Used plastic water bottles thrown away in public places in the city by tourists and others have emerged as a menace.

According to the official, the corporation received about 360 tonnes of garbage from Mangaluru, Bantwal and Ullal daily at its compost plant at Pachchanady. Of this, plastic waste comprised 8 %.

The share of plastic bottles alone constituted 2 %. This is after preliminary screening or sorting out by workers of the company in charge of collection and transportation of solid waste from the city.

A water supply engineer at the corporation said that the corporation workers lifted many used water bottles while cleaning the jackwell of the water pumping station at Thumbe.

It is notwithstanding a vented dam at Shamboor, on the upstream of the Thumbe, across the Netravathi serving as a barrier for bottles further flowing downstream to the Thumbe.

The engineer said that water bottles thrown away clogged storm-water drains and underground sewage lines.