Crush PET bottles, breathe easy

Small entrepreneurs can play messiah by setting up recycling units

Small is indeed beautiful at least for the state's environment! Small entrepreneurs can now assume the role of environmental messiahs by setting up Polyethylene tetra-phthalate (PET) bottles crushing units which would enable the state breathe easy by getting rid of the menace and the environmental hazard caused by discarded PET bottles.

The state generates about 350 tonnes of Polyethylene tetra-phthalate (PET) bottles used in packaging soft drinks and bottled water, out of which Kolkata accounts for a dismal 140-150 tonnes.

"The scenario is improving gradually as the earlier scenario of recycling followed an unscientific method that ends up in unauthorised bottling by unscrupulous people is being replaced by an initiative taken up by the WBPCB and the Indian Association of PET Manufacturers (IAPM) to formulate specific disposal properties in the state for recycling the huge quantam of PET waste which is generated,"said Joydeb Mukherjee, secretary, IAPM.

The collection of used branded PET bottles by recognised dealers helped reduce the unauthorised bottling of water and soft drinks. This initiative also helped to shorten the recycling chain so that the people involved in the process could earn a fair amount of remuneration. This, in turn, stimulated the collection volume.

According to Mukherjee, the process devised by the core committee was a cost effective simple one of crushing the bottles after collection, the hand crushers could be used for the purpose.

The compaction of the PET would lead to easy transportation to the recycling sites and would later be grounded to PET flakes which would be further recycled to manufacture packaging material, carpets, jacket, videotapes, x-ray films, etc., Mukherjee explained.

IAPM helped set up the collection network and the crushing and compaction units.

Till June 2003 there were only two crushing units which catered to a measly 18 per cent of the safe disposal of PET bottles but now the scene has improved with six crushing units located in and around the city with a capacity ranging from 12 to 65 tonne per month , the highest that of Zodiac Auro International's Agarpara unit at 65 tonne and the total capacity of all the units combined would be around 182 tonne.

Mukherjee states that though the number is sufficient to cater to the PET waste of the city but comes nowhere close to accommodating and resolving the PET waste issue of the state.

Therefore the WBPCB and the IAPM are encouraging small entrepreneurs to set up crushing units which Mukherjee states requires Rs 1 lakh investment for a capacity of six tonne excluding the cost of land which would be area specific.

A general clearance has been provided by the WBPCB for setting up such crushing units particularly in areas like Durgapur, Kanthi, Digha, Shantiniketan and the Bolpur district and Haldia which though has a fair amount of PET waste generation but no local crushing unit and collection system to take care of the disposal.

Emerging industrial towns like Siliguri and ecologically vulnerable mountainous regions like Darjeeling however has local crushing units, stated Mukherjee.

The private proprietors of such crushing units, when spoken to, were unwilling to divulge revenue generation details of such an entrepreneural venture stating it as trade secret.

According a number of proprietors of various crushing units said that the price per kg obtained by selling the PET flakes post crushing could vary from Rs 20 to Rs 33 depending on the quality of the flakes.

Various awareness programmes are also being run in association with IAPM to sensitise bottlers on recycling PET through posters and radio channels, in various schools and also the used newspaper collectors.