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The New Indian Express
6th Feb 2004
Cleaning wave on Kovalam beach
Friday February 6 2004 12:22 IST THIRUANANTHAPURAM:
About 37,500 plastic bottles, a heap of fused tube
lights, broken glass pieces and polythene carry- bags
were collected and sold to a scrap dealer as part of the
Zero Waste Kovalam Project.

The mass clean-up was a joint effort by the Coast
Guard, the Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association
(KHRA) Kovalam division, Thanal Conservation Action
and Information Network and the Tourism Department.

??The Coast Guard station at Vizhinjam was started on
January 17 last year and the first thing we wanted to
do here was to clean up the beaches,??Coast Guard
Vizhinjam station deputy commandant-in-charge
O.G.Kutty said.

??Last year we organised a symbolic clean-up of the
beaches on September 19, the International Coast
Guard Day. We were supported by the hotels and local
people in the area. This time, we provided
transportation to carry the collected materials to the
scrap dealer,?? he said.

The mass cleaning of Kovalam which started 10 days
ago included all the four beaches in the tourist area viz
Samudra beach, Guest House beach, Kovalam beach
and Light House beach (Eve?s beach) and their
backyards, most of which are private property, said
Jayakumar of Thanal, the non-governmental
organisation which is providing expertise to the Zero
Waste Kovalam Project.

The collected garbage was kept in gunny bags and was
sent to the scrap dealer. It would be sent for recycling,
said Jayakumar. About Rs 25,000 was spent for the
purpose, he added.

??It is the first time that such a massive clean-up
operation is being organised,?? president of Kovalam
unit of KHRA Sudeesh Kumar said.

??The KHRA is providing full-fledged support towards
cleaning the area. A group of people would be trained
to segregate waste materials from the hotels in the
area, which would be sent to scrap dealers for
recycling, he said.

The solid bio-degradable waste from hotels would be
sent to the biogas plant set up at Light House beach as
part of the project, he said.

The first of the four bio-plants which would be set up
at different locations in Kovalam would start
functioning on February 9.

The bio-gas from the plant would be used for running
an electric generator which would help light the tube
lights on the beach, he said.

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