Waste to Wealth: Councillor gives rice in exchange for plastic

MP  |  24 Feb 2023  |  Siliguri: It takes a lot of effort to come up with initiatives that can actually bring about a difference in people’s lives. It is all the more commendable when it saves Mother Nature and benefits the poor. 

Siliguri Municipal Corporation councillor of ward 20 has taken up such an innovative measure and has termed it ‘Waste to Wealth’. 

Abhaya Basu is on a mission to make her region plastic free and hence has proposed to give away a kilo of rice in exchange for plastic. In this campaign, if anyone collects plastic waste from the ward and hands it over, they will be given rice instead. 

One kg of rice in exchange for 119 plastic packets and one plastic bottle — that’s exactly how the drive works. As per instructions of the court, the Siliguri Municipal Corporation has conducted several raids against the use of single-use plastic carry bags and plastic materials. 

The councillor had introduced this campaign two months ago. 

Since then, once a month, she distributes rice to those who collect plastic waste and deposit it with the ward committee. 

“We have demographically two parts in our ward. One is an urban part and the other is an urban slum. We have started the campaign for those living in urban slum areas. 

We found that due to some document issues, people there are not getting ration and also do not go to work. Aiming to help them and make the ward plastic-free, I have come up with this idea. We are organising the rice distribution programme once a month and we have already collected a huge amount of plastic waste,” said Basu. 

On Friday, as many as 48 people submitted plastic waste and collected rice from the ward office. Gautam Deb, the Mayor of SMC, handed over rice to those who had collected plastic waste from the ward. 

“This is a unique initiative. Already, our board is on the way to making the city plastic-free. We are also segregating the collected wastes. This will also help us collect plastic waste. We will host such campaigns in other wards of SMC too,” stated Deb. 

Source & Courtesy- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/waste-to-wealth-councillor-gives-rice-in-exchange-for-plastic-509778