Pune civic body to launch pilot for household segregation of sanitary napkins

PUNE: Taking its waste segregation drive a step forward, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to launch a pilot project this month to urge residents

PUNE: Taking its waste segregation drive a step forward, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to launch a pilot project this month to urge residents to segregate sanitary napkins, child and adult diapers and not mix them with other garbage.

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The three month pilot will be launched in the Aundh-Baner smart city area this month before expanding it to the rest of the city, Deputy municipal commissioner , Dnyaneshwar Molak, head of PMC’s solid waste management (SWM) department, said. The city generates about 2,100 tonnes of waste per day which includes about 20 tonnes of unwrapped sanitary napkins, he said.

Molak said this is the first initiative of its kind in the country and will be launched in association with Procter and Gamble, a manufacturer of sanitary napkins and other products, and Swach, a cooperative of waste-pickers.

While the funds and equipment for the project will be provided by the firm, Swach and the PMC will jointly implement the project on the ground.

Suchismita Pai, outreach manager, Swach, said the effort was not only to advance the cause of waste segregation but also to bring dignity to the life of waste-pickers who presently had to physically segregate sanitary waste which was dumped with other garbage by the residents.

Swach had introduced the ‘Red Dot campaign’ in Pune to urge residents to dispose sanitary waste such as sanitary napkins and child and adult diapers separately by marking bags with a prominent red dot for easy identification.