Plog Run: BBMP collects over 10 lakh plastic bottles

More than 10 lakh single use plastic water bottles were collected in the city on a single day during Plog Run.

Even as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike issued a circular banning the single use of plastic water bottles in the city, as many as 10 lakh plastic water bottles were collected in less than 12 hours. The Samarthan Trust for Disabled alone has collected eight tonnes of PET bottles and handed it to the BBMP.

The civic body is all set to break the previous Guinness World Records of collecting 28.5 tonnes in 12 hours, as it has now collected up to 33.4 tonnes of plastic waste in lesser time. The accumulated waste will be recycled, said BBMP officials along with those organisations that took part in the event.

"The waste will be sent to recycling organisations such as Swaccha, Prakriti, Parisara and so on. Once it is sent there, the waste will be recycled and put to multiple use such as laying the roads with the help of plastic, sending the RDF to cement factories as resource material, package material and to make pellets," said a representative from a dry waste collection centre who did not wish to be named.

The dry waste collection centres and the NGOs that were associated with the BBMP will process this further, said Randeep D, special commissioner, solid waste management, BBMP.

"We stored the accumulated waste in the Glass House at the BBMP headquarters for public view so that it shows the amount of plastic accumulated on the campus," he added.

"The main purpose of the event was to create awareness among the people that so much of single-use plastic is used in the city. The civic body should educate people about the ill effects of plastic usage," she said.

Meanwhile, Randeep also said that the documentation process of creating a record in the Guinness World Book is going on as the civic body is authenticating the process.