A trash boom barrier installed in the storm-water drain near Jeppu Kutpady railway underpass in Mangaluru.
| Photo Credit: Raghava M.
The Mangaluru City Corporation has given permission to Plastic Fisher, a German-based social enterprise, to install trash boom barriers in storm-water drains at six places in the city to prevent plastic bottles and other non-degradable waste entering rivers and the sea.
MCC Commissioner Ravi Chandra Naik told The Hindu that the permission was given to install trash boom barriers a few days ago. The enterprise will regularly remove the collected plastic bottles and other waste. It will be taken to the material recovery facility (MRF) in Bajal for processing. These barriers will be removed during monsoon and ‘red alerts’ when the flow in storm-water drains will be heavy, he said.
A trash barrier has been installed in the storm-water drain near Jeppu Kutpady Railway underpass. The enterprise is set to install a trash barrier each in Pandeshwar, Alake, Kuloor, Malady, and near Netravathi bridge in Kadekar.
Harish Shenoy, managing director of Plastic Fisher India, said the firm has been working in seven cities in India to prevent rive and sea pollution owing to plastic and other non-degradable materials. In addition to placing trash barriers, the organisation has been holding regular beach cleaning exercises.
It started from Varanasi and Bengaluru in 2021. In 2022 it started in Kanpur and Thiruvananthapuram. This year it has taken it up in Mumbai and Vadodara.
In Mangaluru, Mr. Shenoy said the firm was installing it since 2022. The MCC has been giving permission for a period of one year and renewing it. As much as 2,3 lakh tonnes of non-degradable waste, which includes discarded fishing nets, collected in the period has been processed in the MRF in Bajal so far, he said.
The Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, which has four MRFs to process dry waste of all the panchayats, was proposing installation of trash barriers across some river streams in the district under the Karnataka Strengthening Coastal Resiliance and Economy (K-SHORE) project.
Published – November 26, 2025 07:16 pm IST
