Plastic waste stifles hydel project on Beas

Plastic waste stifles hydel project on Beas

Sat, Jun 28 03:01 AM

Tourism is taking its toll on the Larji Hydel project. While plastic is choking Beas, polythenes and bottles are flowing downwards from Rohtang Pass to the 126 MW hydel project on the river. The recent heavy downpours have swept down the plastic waste left behind by tourists in Manali and Rohtang Pass to the hydel project.

While Manali Municipal Committee Chairperson Naveen Thakur claims that efforts to curb plastic menace by banning plastic bags and removing plastic waste have been on for some time now, this tourist season, the problem has cropped up afresh.

Ajay Mittal, HPSEB Chairman and state's Principal Secretary (Power), says: "On a daily basis, we remove tonnes of plastic waste that gets accumulated at the barrage site. At times, the garbage slips into the machines as well. This could hit power generation and damage the machines."

Till now, the HPSEB has been clearing the plastic waste manually. "Our men go down into the river, close to the barrage and remove heaps of plastic. It is not only plastic bottles but also beer bottles that get stuck here," says D R Sharma, Superintending Engineer at Larji. The annual expenditure incurred in clearing the garbage exceeds Rs 1 crore, say officials.

Harinder Hira, Principal Secretary (Environment and Scientific Technologies) says: "I have directed Deputy Commissioner of Kullu, M Sudha Devi, to start a campaign for clearing all plastic garbage in the area."

Mittal has directed engineers to devise a way to ensure regular removal of plastic garbage from the river. "Cleaning of the river is an arduous task, but we have to do it to protect the project."

For a plastic free world

A woman's struggle against plastics that destoys a healthy life in our planet. You can contribute your miteca
Climate and Environment
Life Less Plastic
Posted on April 24, 2008 by Amy VanderZanden
Topics: Climate and Environment
Countries: United States
Alternatives to Plastic: Home Gardens. Photo: key lime_pie (flickr)
Alternatives to Plastic: Home Gardens. Photo: key lime_pie (flickr)

I recently came upon a blog by a Chicago woman committed to living as close to a plastic-free life as possible. Her journey to a life without plastic began last September, and over the months her postings about her adventures and increasing knowledge have gathered an audience in the thousands.

The statistics about our reliance on plastics are shocking: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of plastic in our waste stream has increased from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 11.7 percent in 2006. And, while Americans drank 50 billion bottles of water in 2006, 38 billion of those ended up in the trash, according to Fast Company magazine.

The anonymous blogger, whose blog is titled Life Less Plastic, explains that she's doing this for personal health reasons, as well to do better by the environment. Among her most popular posts is an entry describing "What I'm Doing to Be Mostly Plastic-Free," which includes:

10. Washing my dishes with Dr. Bronner's bar soap. It works! I'm not kidding!
11. Bringing my own stainless steel coffee mug to the coffee shop. This is important because paper cups are lined with plastic.
12. Bringing along a reusable water bottle or mug for water, and NEVER drinking bottled water.
13. Bringing my own takeout containers to restaurants in case I have leftovers. This sounds embarrassing, but no one has ever even noticed that I've brought my own container except for the people I'm with.
14. Not buying aluminum food cans, excluding canned tomatoes and vegetable broth, which I haven't been able to give up yet. Hopefully, I can/jar some tomatoes this summer and do away with this plastic use, though.

In a society where plastic is pervasive and packaging alternatives are few, even Life Less Plastic's author hasn't been able to do without medicine, which comes in plastic bottles; toothpaste; and even some packaged foods she hasn't been able to find in the bulk section of nearby supermarkets.

Plastics have been around for a while, but we are only beginning to understand their potentially negative consequences. Without plastic, we wouldn't have seen the advances in science and medicine we saw in the last century. However, as the Chicago blogger points out, there are a lot of ways to "live a life less plastic."
Keywords: sustainability, plastic, green revolution

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