Over 75,000 kg sanitary waste collected from Chennai households in 20 days

The authorities said a dedicated battery-operated vehicle maintained by the corporation as well as the private companies it had contracted was allocated to transport the waste to the two incinerators in the Tamil Nadu capital.

A dry run was conducted by the officials earlier this month and through Clean India Animators, the public is being sensitised to the need for segregating sanitary waste from other waste. The people are being informed that diapers and sanitary pads have to be wrapped securely in pouches provided by manufacturers or in a suitable wrapping material and deposited in the bin meant specifically to enable the hygienic handling of waste.

From January 27 to February 15, 75,090 kg of pads and diapers were collected from 15 zones of the corporation. As many as 23,140 kg of the waste was collected from households in the Tondiarpet zone. It was followed by Valasaravakkam with 10,960 kg and Thiruvottiyur with 10,450 kg.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, an official said it was the first time the corporation had introduced such an initiative and that the feedback from the public had been good, adding that officials would be scaling up the initiative in the days to come.

“Nearly three lakh pamphlets have been distributed to the public so far to raise awareness about the initiative. Each ward has a dedicated animator. The collected sanitary waste is taken to Manali and Kodungaiyur to incinerate it scientifically,” he said.