The much sought after tourist destination Kumarakom in Kerala is gearing up to become the first plastic free tourist destination in the state. With cleaning up of Vembanad lake, the banks on which pristine Kumarakom Village lies, the tourist spot is to be free from plastics next year.
The Responsible Tourism Mission under the Clean Kerala Initiative has taken up the mission to give Kumarakom the tagline of ‘plastic free destination’. The responsible Tourism Mission would be utilising the service of various stakeholders in the tourism industry to achieve the target of a plastic free Kumarakom village.
As a first step, the employees in resorts in Kumarakom and operators of House Boats will be given training in waste management. Moreover, waste collection units are also being provided at house boat terminals at Cheepungal, Kavanattinkara and kaippuzhamuttu. Apart from this, waste collections nits are also being set up at boarding pints for small boats. The plastics that are collected from these collection centres would be recycled at the recycling unit at Ettumanur Industrial Area.
It has been estimated that tourism adds to about 500 kilograms of plastic to Vembanad lake daily, Apart from this, plastics also get floated from other sources, which makes the lake choking.
