US exporters wants plastic to be segregated from garbage

Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Jun 17 (UNI) The Evergreen Specialities Inc, the New Jersey-based exporters, who had 'mistakenly' sent waste materials from the US to the Tuticorin Port in Tamil Nadu three years ago, has submitted in their counter affidavit, filed in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court yesterday, that the waste could not be sent back to the US or any other country without the plastic content being segregated from the garbage.

The 880 tonnes of garbage were sent along with 25,000 tonnes of mixed wastepaper imported by ITC Limited, Secunderabad, in 35 cargo containers.

The owners of the cargo containers had filed a petition in Madurai Bench, seeking intervention of the court in getting their containers back.

Evergreen Specialities Inc Administrator U B Sehgal, in his counter affidavit, said he had identified a buyer of waste plastic in Bangladesh. But, the Bangladesh Customs Department would permit entry of containers if they contained only plastic waste. He said a high level committee that inspected the cargo found that it contained municipal waste, including plastic waste, bottles, rubber mats and leather bags. Such a mixture of plastic waste and other things could not be sent to any country, he contended.

There was no paper content in the containers as the moisture in the paper had evaporated in the last three years and now it had become ash. Hence, it could not be sent to any other country. He submitted that he had requested Harbour Petrochem Industries in Tuticorin Port Zone, which was engaged in the business of importing plastic waste and processing them before exporting, to take the containers at zero level.

Stating that the company was dispatching 4,000 containers of waste materials to various countries every year, he contended that it was due to the confusion created by private packaging and shipping firm, Tidewater Fibre Corporation, the cargo was wrongly sent to the ITC Limited.

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