It is no doubt that plastic waste is harmful to all life forms on Earth. Sadly, tonnes of garbage is generated regularly in our country and the process becomes even tougher as far as disposing of the plastics is concerned.
We might have also seen ragpickers collecting such waste and trying to earn little money by selling them off. But still, they don’t get a satisfying meal with the money they earn.
So, in order to make sure that these homeless ones get to eat a good meal Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has rolled out an initiative under which it will serve a meal in exchange for a half kilogram plastic waste.
The ‘Meal for Plastic’ initiative has now been rolled out in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the state government’s Aahar Scheme.
In good news, the facility will be available at all the state-government-run Aahar Centers in the Bhubaneswar City.
Speaking to news agency ANI, BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary explained it in an elegant way. He said: “This is kind of a Plastic Collection campaign, plus (provides) food security. There are a lot of people who collect plastic and there also the people who throw plastic, which creates a problem. So we thought there should be some mechanism to collect this plastic waste, where both the objectives can be achieved.
“So now anyone can go to any of the 11 Aahar Center in Bhubaneswar and by giving half a kilogram of plastic waste, they can get the meal,” BMC Commissioner added in a statement.
Meanwhile, Tarana Shayad, Project head Plastic Waste Management, UNDP said: “This project is a small step to protect the environment and to create awareness among the people regarding Plastic waste. We will collect all the plastic from the Aahar Centers and will recycle it in a proper manner.”
“BMC wants to aware the people through this that plastic may feed you, so don’t throw plastic on roads, just collect it and get food,” Shayad added.