Bhadradri on a mission to build a plastic free society

With a view to building a plastic free district and protecting its people from pollution and related health issues, the district administration of Bhadradri Kothagudem in , has commenced various activities to build awareness and curb use of plastics with support of the village community.

Commenting on their initiatives, Sri Rajat Kumar Saini, District Collector (DC), said it was vital to make environmental protection a part of people’s life values. All the ancient cultures grew up worshiping nature and it was customary to plant five trees before cutting down a tree in our country. In a country where rivers are considered mothers and the earth a goddess, the tradition of respecting and worshiping nature should be practiced in modern society, he added.

SUP ban notification: On 5th September, 2019, the DC and the DRDA Chairman jointly issued a ban on single use plastics (SUPs) and inaugurated a programme to produce cloth bags as alternatives to plastic. The also instructed all government offices to create awareness about the SUP ban among the public.

SHS 2019: As a part of Swachhata Hi Seva, 2019, the village communities were mobilised to take up shramdaan to collect plastic and curb SUPs. SUPs often referred to as disposable plastic (use and throw items) are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once, before they are thrown away or recycled. These products include plastic carry bags, plastic cutlery including plates, cups, straws and decorative items

made of Styrofoam or thermocol.

Mega rally: A mega rally was conducted to create awareness on the need to curb SUPs that involved as many as 2500 participants during SHS 2019. This included students from schools and colleges, women from Self Help groups (SHGs), district headquarters’ teams from Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), DRDA and DEO staff.

Door to door campaign: SHG members conducted a door to door campaign and mobilised massive community participation to collect, segregate and dispose of SUPs. They also conducted awareness meetings, rallies, meetings, workshops in the district on the need to curb SUPs even as they prepared and distributed cloth bags to the public.

Recycling and effective disposal of the collected plastic waste: A total of 6 Dry Resource Collection (DRC) centres have been set up in Kothagudem, , , Palvancha, and . All GPs have been instructed to transport their plastic waste to their nearest DRC centres. During the shramdaan activity of SHS 2019, 20 tons of plastic was collected and handed over to ITC centres in which will transport them to cement units. One KG rice or 6 eggs for 1 KG plastic: Palvancha DRC centre along with Lions club members is offering 1Kg rice or 6 eggs for 1 Kg Plastic waste. This offer is made to GPs closest to this DRC centre.

Capacity building of SHG women: Master Training of Trainers was held at district level to train SHG women, high schools students and teachers to manufacture and sell paper/cloth bags as alternatives to SUP bags. The master trainers will in turn train others at block level.

Other activities organised:

 Gram Sabhas to create awareness on plastic waste and to motivate people to minimize plastic waste generation  Shramdaan in all Gram Panchayats for plastic waste collection and segregation  Outlined plan for collection and segregation of waste from households either daily or as per GP’s convenience.  Plastic waste collected is emptied of its food or other content for safe disposal  Identified a designated place for temporary or permanent storage facility with roof for plastic waste storage  Collected waste at a central place for IEC/photography before making arrangements for transporting it to the identified central hub in the district  GPs should take the responsibility to transport waste to the block headquarters/district headquarters  Sensitization of sanitation workers on segregation of plastic waste and its storage  Cleaning of roads and notifications to avoid littering on roads and in open places; and prohibiting burning of plastic waste  Penalties imposed on shops/producers using plastic under 50 microns  SHG women, small scale manufacturers and entrepreneurs encouraged to manufacture and sell papers/cloth bags/bio-degradable plastic covers instead of SUP carry bags