Nagpur: Rising petroleum prices are likely to make PET products costly. With crude on the boil, polymers the raw material for making plastic products have become dearer by over Rs 10,000 per tonne within a month. As a result there is a likelihood of plastic packaging material manufacturers passing on the cost hike to endusers.

z. Manikandan Tenders to be floated for the Rs.44-crore project once the State gives administrative sanction GIVEN APPROVAL: The proposed compost yard in Venkatamangalam near Vandalur.

By R Haldorai WITH the Coimbatore Plastic Manufacturers and Merchants Association obtaining a stay in the High Court against the ban on the use of plastics, Coimbatore Corporation has stopped raiding shops, seizing and slapping fine on sellers and users for the past two weeks. The use of plastic carrybags has since increased in every nook and corner of the city. Many councillors, who were not aware of the stay, raised doubts blaming the corporation health wing officials for being inactive.

While municipal councils have foiled several attempts of the High Court to get them to attend to the garbage problem in their respective jurisdictions in the last two years, the High Court on Wednesday contemplated imposing fine on defaulting civic bodies would work as deterrent.

The proposed garbage depot on 57 acres of forest land at Punawale, which is facing severe opposition from all quarters, has put the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in a tight spot. As political parties are up in arms against the depot coming up near the Mumbai-Pune highway, there are a list of 14 conditions whose compliance is being sought by the forest department.

City incinerates 1 tonne bio-medical waste a day Nearly one tonne of bio-medical waste is generated and disposed of in Pune each day. While the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has outsourced the activity to a private firm Sun Enviro Limited to collect the waste and dispose it at the incineration facility at Kailash crematorium, efforts are now underway to woo over 6,000 small dispensaries to join the scheme. According to Piyush Solanki, assistant general manager of Sun Enviro, "so far, only 250 dispensaries and clinics have been registered.'

Mohamed Imranullah S. MAOURAI: Tonnes of American garbage rotting in 35 cargo containers at the Tuticorin port for nearly three years cannot be sent back to the U.S. or to any other country without the plastic content being segregated, says its exporter Evergreen Specialities Inc. of New Jersey.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Tuesday decided to dump the garbage collected from the capital at Sundarighat in Kirtipur after the obstruction of the local residents of Okharpouwa landfill site. According to KMC's Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Thapaliya, a decision on the garbage management at Sundarighat will be taken by this evening and the garbage will be collected from tomorrow. KMC informed that Sundarighat can be used as landfill for another three years.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has failed to curb the practice of dumping garbage in open drains by slum dwellers. With monsoon fast approaching, clogged drains are sure to create havoc once it starts raining. Officials fear that unless the slum dwellers stop dumping garbage, the city may witness severe flooding in several areas. After a lot of hue and cry, the civic body has now decided to supply tricycles in every slum where the major drains are situated for door-to-door collection of garbage.

Kathmandu appears all set to reel under the perennial garbage problem for some time more as the Sisdole locals near the Okharpauwa Landfill Site in Nuwakot continue to obstruct garbage trucks of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) from dumping the city's wastage there. Due to the obstruction from last Friday, heaps of garbage has started to literally cover the pavements, causing serious eyesore to the city's residents and possible health hazards. Kathmanduites are already thronging to the hospital with diarrhea, jaundice, typhoid and other complaints.