Village panchayat in Coimbatore builds bus shelter from 1,908 kg of processed plastic waste

Plastic waste turned into a bus shelter in Kittampalayam Village panchayat.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Kittampalayam Village Panchayat in Coimbatore district has installed a bus shelter constructed entirely from processed plastic waste, showcasing a sustainable approach to local infrastructure.

The shelter is made using Multi-Layered Plastic (MLP)—typically found in items like biscuit wrappers and snack packets—which presents recycling challenges due to its mixed-material layers. This initiative, reportedly the first of its kind at a village panchayat level, turns waste generated within the community into a practical public amenity.

Waste from the village was sorted at the source, with MLP collected, shredded, compressed, and converted into materials such as roofing sheets, covering sheets, and paver blocks for the shelter. “Over nine months, we gathered 1,908 kg of MLP for this project,” said C. Prashanth of Recompose Recycling Private Limited, the waste management company that implemented the initiative.

Village Panchayat President V.M.C. Chandrasekar added, “Residents are educated on source segregation, and we repurpose organic waste as compost for our farms. Of the 800 kg of waste generated in the village, we used the MLP portion to replace a damaged bus shelter with this sustainable structure.”