By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 15 Jun: For the management of plastic waste in Uttarakhand, the Dehradun-based Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation is planning to start a community-based Plastic Bank campaign in several municipal bodies of Uttarakhand with the support of the Uttarakhand Urban Development Directorate (UDD). UDD has proposed to implement it in various urban bodies as a local innovation. If everything goes well, there is a strong possibility of establishing plastic banks on a large scale in many municipal bodies of the state in the coming days.
In a meeting organised on plastic waste management at the Urban Development Directorate in Dehradun here today, Anoop Nautiyal, the founder of SDC Foundation, presented a detailed document on the Plastic Bank campaign. Officials from the Urban Development Directorate, as well as officials from various municipal bodies of Dehradun, Haridwar, Uttarkashi, Tehri, and Pauri districts participated online.
Nautiyal mentioned that through the Plastic Bank campaign, their organisation has established more than 130 plastic banks in Dehradun in the last 6 months. Sharing his experiences, he said that they are currently operating plastic banks in 38 schools and working with more than 25,000 school students, 37 Maggi Points, 31 hostels and many other institutions.
In his presentation made on the occasion, Anoop Nautiyal stated that the Plastic Bank initiative is a positive effort towards community awareness, segregation, behaviour changes, collection, and recycling of plastic waste. He emphasised the need to amplify the campaign in the community through schools, universities, shops, showrooms, offices, hostels, hospitals, municipal bodies, and government departments. He assured that if the Urban Development Directorate, any municipal body, or government department require any assistance in implementing this campaign, their organisation was ready to provide all possible support. Detailed information was also shared during the discussions about various efforts undertaken by UDD in Uttarakhand regarding waste management.
The participants appreciated the concept of the Plastic Bank campaign and expressed interest in expanding it further.
In this programme, representatives of nearly 30 municipal bodies of the state along with Dr LN Mishra, Additional Director of Urban Development Directorate, Superintendent Engineer Ravi Pandey, Assistant Director Alok Uniyal, State Mission Manager Manoj Pandey, Solid Waste Management Expert, UDD Digvijay Semwal, Solid Waste Management Expert, SBM Gaurav Chamoli IEC Expert Vimala Makhloga participated. From the SDC Foundation, Prerna Raturi, Dinesh Semwal and Praveen Upreti were also present.
