Trash Booms Set Up to Prevent Plastic From Entering Water Bodies in Mangalore: Great Initiative

Plastic Fischer, a Germany-based social enterprise that develops cost-efficient technologies to stop plastic pollution in rivers, is in the process of installing trash booms at prominent stormwater drains and streams and near the river mouths in Mangalore to prevent plastic from entering the rivers and oceans, with support from Hasiru Dala, a social impact organisation.

Harish Shenoy, director, of Plastic Fischer Indiainformed that a trash boom or a long-lasting structure designed to catch and hold floating plastic waste was installed at a stormwater drain near Kudroli Alake about a month ago.

The plastic is manually collected from the systems on a daily basis and brought to sorting facilities. All recyclables are reintroduced into the supply chain. Unfortunately, we have noticed that the vast majority of the collected material is not recyclable and is sent to thermal processing at certified incineration plants. In the last one month, the team in Mangalore has collected about 3.5 tons of plastic through beach clean-ups and river bank clean up. The work on installing a temporary trash boom at Kulur is in progress. The company has taken up similar projects in Varanasi, Kanpur, and Thiruvananthapuram and has been operating since early 2021. More places are being identified to install more such temporary trash booms that can be easily removed in case of bad weather conditions.

Mangalore City Corporation commissioner Akshy Sridhar said the MCC has offered land for the project on a trial basis. Once they demonstrate and are successful, it would be taken forward to more places, he said.