Even as Kerala is attempting to limp back on its very long road to recovery, it has another huge headache on its hands: the growing mounds of plastic from the relief material pouring into the state. Environmentalists are concerned that packaging from food grains and clothes, and the humongous number of drinking water bottles may end up choking drains and creeks. On an average, the state gets more than 100 tonnes of water bottles from good Samaritans across the country and does not have plastic shredding machines or recycling plants in its villages.

Minister KK Shailaja Teacher, who holds the pollution and environment portfolio, said, "We have now deployed youth volunteers and NCC cadets to ensure that plastic waste is collected and sent to shredding machines, which we will install wherever possible."