CSR: Citizens Participate In Eliminating Plastic Waste In Mumbai
Government of Maharashtra recently placed a ban on single use plastic bags in lieu of uncontrollable plastic pollution in the state. With the dumping grounds completely saturated, the government decided to take drastic measures to manage the waste produced by the city. With not many alternatives available for those bags, there could have been a lot of protest. However, the spirit of Mumbaikars made it easy for the ban to be executed quite smoothly.
Amplifying the government’s move, Ecosac, a brand of utility shopping bags in India involved citizens of Mumbai in its #37forecosac campaign. As part of the campaign, in the month of June from World Environment day 05/06/18 till World Population Day 11/07/18 the organisation has called upon citizens to exchange 37 or more medium & large sized plastic bags and in exchange rewarded them an eco-friendly high utility Reusable Bag. With a startling response received from Mumbaikars, the bag brand collected 850 kilos of plastic from over 7000 households and societies, which resulted in reduction of 5100 kilos of carbon dioxide through a zero emission process. The brand tied up with Rudra Environmental Services, a nonprofit based out of Pune, involved in to recycling of plastic into industrial pollyfuel.
Citizens from households, housing societies, schools and even corporates participated in this campaign against the pollution monster. Plastic bags was collected from their doorstep through a well-structured logistical method. Edelweiss, Nalanda Public School, Shree Bhuvendra CHS – Dahisar, Paradise Society – Raheja Vihar – Powai are some names that took part in this campaign.
An elated Anil Chowta, CEO, Ecosac said, ‘Citizens enthusiastically participated in the campaign, which was way beyond our expectation! Initially, Plastic bag collection was a herculean task and logistically a challenge. However, despite the initial hiccups, we managed to reach out to maximum number of responsible citizens who contacted us. People now, are more responsible and aware, and it has been our endeavour as a company to do our small bit to save the environment. Rudra Environment Solution has been phenomenal in converting waste plastic into industrial fuel through TCD i.e. Thermo Catalytic Depolymerisation Process. Their partnership and the supportive policies of the government have together given an impetus to the success of our campaign’.
If the concept of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ has to be defined, then ECOSAC bags are the perfect example, also the perfect solution for consumers and retailers towards the government’s ban on plastic. The world is expected to consume around 5 trillion plastic bags a year – i.e., about 1 million bags a minute. With this innovative product, the ratio of consumption can be reduced down to 1 ECOSAC bag: 1000 plastic bags, considering the amount of plastic bags consumed over 3 years (which is the average lifespan of an ECOSAC bag).
The company has also recently made news with its #EcofriendlyMumbaikar Campaign where it called upon Ganesh devotees performing eco-friendly practices to participate and win, thereby encouraging the eco-friendly sentiment amongst the citizens.
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