Mumbai: The BMC’s idea of recycling seized plastic as benches, dustbins and school stationery is still in a limbo and 4,148 kg of plastic is lying unused in BMC warehouses for the past few months.
After the civic body revived its drive against banned plastic on July 1, ward-wise teams of the license department visited markets, shops and establishments to seize banned plastic. It was then dumped in warehouses awaiting a policy decision on disposal/recycling. However, civic action slowed down after the government allowed use, storage, trade, distribution, and transportation of all single-use disposable items.
BMC invites tender
The civic body has now revived discussion with a few NGOs willing to recycle this plastic material and has also decided to invite a tender.
“We were in discussion with a few NGOs but the idea didn’t move further. We haven’t shut our options yet and will soon work on it,” said a senior civic official.
The BMC has taken legal action against 22 violators and collected a fine of Rs45.25 lakh till February this year. The shopkeepers using banned plastic are fined between Rs5,000 and Rs25,000 per violation.
