Diwali is celebration time. However, environment organisation Mobius Foundation, headed by Pradip Burman, used it this year as an opportunity to get Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) to take on the challenge of collecting and disposing of plastic waste generated during the festival season.

“The idea is to get the community involved in reducing plastic consumption and segregating waste in a manner in which it can be easily recycled. We decided to use the festival season to launch the pilot project,” says Burman, who is also the Chairman of Dabur Nepal Pvt Ltd and promoter-director on the board of Aviva Life Insurance.

The pilot, to be institutionalised at a later stage, initially involves 2,500 families targeted through RWAs in East Delhi. Ten days before Diwali, collecting stations were set up for every 250 families in each residential society covered, with incentives given to residents to support the cause in the form of eco-friendly bags and environment awareness booklets. A door-to-door awareness campaign was also simultaneously launched to sensitise the RWAs and residents.

Yarn and toys

The plastic waste collected during the project will be taken for recycling to environment start-up Green O Tech. It will be converted into pellets, polyester yarn and toys among other recycled products.

The next step will be replicating the model in Gurugram in collaboration with local environmental groups. The impact data will then be collected, analysed and given as feedback to municipal corporations to introduce the model on a larger and permanent scale.

Burman is optimistic about the impact of the programme and feels that it will contribute to the national effort to reduce single-use plastic. It will also ensure that it is recycled, rather than ending up in landfills.

However, he acknowledges that much more has to be done to solve the plastic problem. “Ultimately, we need to find a way to manufacture biodegradable plastic. That would be the ideal we must strive for,” he says.

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