Residents were worried about the poor record of pollution in the city and wanted to do something.
In order to make Gurugram a plastic-free city, residents of various residential societies have come together and initiated Multi-Layered Plastic (MLP) waste collection drive in their vicinity by joining hands with Safai Bank of India. The collected MLP waste gets deposited in their account.
Savneet Kaur, a resident of Vatika Seven Lamps in sector 82, was always worried about the poor record of pollution in the city and wanted to do something.
She said, "Tonnes of MLP waste can be seen in landfills resulting in more land and water pollution. As a concerned citizen, I had organised several workshops in my society and tried to inspire people to do more for our environment. I started this campaign in my society two months back with the active involvement of society kids. We carried out a weekly drive and installed a dustbin in one of the towers. We urged people not to throw MLP waste. We have asked them to keep it and we will deposit it."
"On Saturday, I deposited 840 MLP waste items at the drop facility in Palam Vihar. Altough the numbers are less but we are happy that atleast we took a step,” she added.
Packets of biscuits, chips, chocolate, tetra pack, tea, detergent powder, hand washing, ice cream, etc. were collected during the drive.
Savneet informed that 10 society children, Guntas Singh, Ashka, Shreya, Ridhi, Arvi, Purvansh, Divyansh, Manan, Mannat and Avni, took active participation in the drive. Earlier they used to put waste in the bins but now they collect and deposit it. Moreover, they are urging their friends and family to do the same.
Similarly, a group of women from Vipul Belmonte, a high rise society in sector 53 are also collecting MLP waste in their society since last year. The campaign was started by Bhavna Sharma and Joya and later joined by Nina Gupta and Shalu Jain.
Nina informed that every month they organise a collection drive in their society and till now they have collected more than 30 kg of MLP waste from their society. "Around 30 children are part of this campaign. Kids are a beacon of hope and eager to learn positive things. On the other hand, adults are not keen on any change as they like to live their life as per their wish but kids work for environment conservation with more enthusiasm.
Rishi Agarwal, Mumbai based environmentalist and founder of Safai Bank of India said, "Recycling of MLP waste is challenging due to lack of interest from the ragpickers to collect such material. As a result, this waste ends up in landfill sites in large volumes. These MLP waste are light in weight and a major contributor to water and land pollution."
He further added, “Anyone can open their account in our Safai Bank and deposit their MLP waste. We will make sure that these wastes do not add to the piles of already full landfills but gets dispose of effectively.”
