Mumbai, Jul 20 (PTI) The All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) has started a project in Maharashtra’s Satara and Pimpri Chinchwad in Pune district to reduce plastic landfill and recycle them for making useful items, an official said.
The project is aimed at creating awareness among communities, including children, youth, women self-help groups, sanitation workers, waste pickers and community-based organisations, about enhancing source segregation and proper waste disposal, AIILSG Mumbai senior executive director Utkarsha Kavadi told PTI.
The AIILSG has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Satara Municipal Council for the ‘Localizing Plastic Action through Communities’ (LPAC) project.
“We have rolled out LPAC project in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Satara in Maharashtra in partnership with respective local governments to advocate and sentise the key stakeholders on circularity in plastic waste management and environmental impacts that will help in reducing plastic landfill and recycle them into useful items,” Kavadi said.
“In this initial phase of the project, we have already started this project in 20 schools in Satara and are in talks to include more schools going forward. We are looking at participation of college students through an app, which is expected to be developed in another 2-3 months. Similarly, we are also under discussions with SHGs in both PCMC and Satara to engage in this project,” she stated.
The app will help to streamline the collection, tracking, and reporting of plastic waste and track awareness activities, she added.
Maharashtra is the country’s highest plastic waste producing state generating 3,11,254 tonnes every year, according to data by Global Plastic Action Partnership, a World Economic Forum’s multi-stakeholder platform dedicated to translate commitments to reduce plastic pollution and waste into concrete action, Kavadi said.
“Through this project, we are planning to build the capacities, strengthen the roles and formally engage waste pickers, sanitation workers, facility operators, youth, school students and teachers and local NGOs among others in the waste management value chain of plastic waste management,” she said.
The AIILSG has also joined hands with the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES) Mumbai and UNICEF Maharashtra to strengthen municipal capacities for collective action in creating awareness on source segregation and on air pollution due to illegal burning of waste.
“We have found some level of awareness among waste pickers on segregation of waste, especially in PCMC, where mostly it is segregated in wet and dry waste categories,” Kavadi said.
“Now we are also creating awareness on finding value in thrown-away packets of chips and biscuits that can be recycled into useful products, including sunglasses and other eyewear, and household items. These thrown away packets are lightweight and low-value, making them economically unviable for recycling,” she noted.
Usually, for waste collectors, pet, juice and water bottles, milk cartoons, plastic trays and shampoo bottles are considered high value items for recycling, she added.
Through this project, the AIILSG will train SHGs to collect, clean and sell sorted plastic to entrepreneurs and establish partnerships with recyclers for direct supply chains, Kavadi said.
“We want to equip SHGs with skills to create bags, pouches, clutches, and more from multi layered plastics (MLPs) and mixed plastic waste,” she said.
“For this we are looking at collaboration with designers and retailers to scale sustainable products, which can help SHGs in creating alternate sources of income for its members,” she added. PTI SM GK
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