2,800kg plastic waste turned into public amenities

A city-based not-for-profit group has entered the Limca Book of Records for the second year; this time for its efforts on plastic waste management. The group was mentioned in the Limca Book of Records 2019 for its campaign to protect water bodies.

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As part of Plastic Recyclothon-Ek Baar Phir, the group, Project Mumbai, collected plastic waste over seven days from 84 housing societies, 48 business establishments, and 23 schools, which cover around 1.25 lakh people. The group then recycled the plastic, around 2,800kg, into public amenities — 40 benches, 50 garbage bins, and 3,500 pencil boxes. The benches will be placed in municipal gardens and on beach fronts, while the garbage bins will be given to housing societies. The pencil boxes will be given to participating school students.

In 2018, when the project was launched, it saw 85,000 citizens donating plastic. In 2019, between October 2 and 8, the number went up to 1,25,000, including 30,000 teachers and students across various schools. “Behavioural change is not easy to achieve. Hence, Recyclothon was our way of engaging citizens and raising awareness about the threat posed by plastic pollution. Now, they are not only donating their plastic waste, but also making pledges to segregate wet and dry waste,” said Shishir Joshi, CEO and founder, Project Mumbai.

“ Project Mumbai’s work is testimony of citizen-led initiatives that reduce the burden on BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation),” said Chandrakant Tambe from the civic body’s solid waste management department.

The group is planning to start similar initiatives across Pune and Nashik in the next two months, and gradually expand it across the country.

In June 2019, the group had launched a collaborative model to protect water bodies through a volunteering programme, Jallosh Clean Coasts, which was partnered by Hindustan Times.