IIP ties up with IBHA to collect waste for recycling

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), under the Ministry of Commerce, today said it has joined hands with an NGO to collect plastic waste for recycling in the city of Mumbai.
IIP has been creating awareness of the need to collect sachets that clog drains during the monsoons, and incentivising ragpickers to do the same.
IIP has joined hands with the IBHA (Indian Beauty and Hygiene Association) to engage an NGO, Mukti, to facilitate collection of plastic waste. The model involves the collection of multi-layer laminated sachets from the streets of Mumbai, IIP director Prof Saha said in a statement here.

This waste then mixed with other dry solid packaging waste to create particle boards that can potentially become seats for stadiums.
"The companies that are a part of IBHA have a CSR fund via which they hope to incentivise rag-pickers and decongest plastic waste on the roads.
"Over one lakh rag-pickers, who earn Rs 75-100 a day, help partially clear Mumbai of the 8,000 tonne of waste of all kinds generated daily," Saha said.

The municipal corporation, by itself, will be unable to manage such large volumes of junk.
Mumbai has a population of 1.2 crore and an additional floating population of 30 lakh.

There are 30,000 people employed on the roads of Mumbai for cleaning, sweeping, collecting garbage, cleaning the city's gutters, loading and unloading the city's garbage into trucks.
Mumbai generates about 8,000 tonne of garbage every day, of which 65 per cent is bio-degradable, 20 per cent is recyclable dry waste and remaining is construction material.
Separation of dry waste is the only way to reduce the burden on dumping grounds. However, right now, only about 15% of the waste is being segregated.
"We already know about Levis Jeans using plastic in their product. Companies like Dollplast have found a way to reuse plastic to make roads and furniture," Saha said.

It's only a matter of time, before someone makes a Rs 100 crore company out of Mumbai's waste, he said.