NT NETWORK
PANAJI: Rolling up its sleeves to deal with increasing industrial waste, the Goa State Pollution Control Board has convened a meeting of the heads of 17 industrial estates to tackle the waste generated by industrial units.
The meeting will be held on Thursday at the GSPCB office to discuss ways to deal with the increasing industrial waste.
Admitting to taking suo motu cognizance of The Navhind Times report, GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said that it is a serious matter which needs to be resolved.
In the past many notices had been issued to several industrial units for dumping their non-recyclable waste without segregating it. At this meeting, the board will direct the industrial estates to segregate the waste by adhering to the list of permissible and non-permissible waste, which will be collected by the waste management cell of the GSPCB at free of cost, he said.
“We will take only non-recyclable waste to send it for incineration to Vasavadutta Cement factory at Karnataka which includes plastic below 40 microns, pet bottles, cotton, cardboard, tetra pack, aluminium foil, thermocol etc,” Noronha said.
Other categories of waste will have to be disposed of by the industrial units scientifically.
The news report had said that non-biodegradable and non-recyclable waste had been piling up around industrial areas as the WMC had not collected it for months.
The WMC, which was constituted in November 2013 by the department of science and technology and now operated by the GSPCB, currently collects plastic waste from 116 panchayats and only four industrial estates – Kundaim, Cuncolim, Margao and Bethora.
Of the four estates, Kundaim and Cuncolim have organised collection points with both having constructed sheds where the waste is stored.
Sources at the WMC said that they have prioritised on convincing village panchayats to join the drive to make the state garbage free. But they have not succeeded in convincing the industrial estates on waste disposal.
At present, out of 17 industrial estates only four industrial estates have been segregating their waste.
GSPCB sources said that there is no mechanism with the board to check the quantity of industrial waste.
Cuncolim industrial estate has collected about 750 kg, Bethora has collected 688 kg, while Kundaim industrial estate has collected 274 kg of non-recyclable waste.