ITC Ltd, a frontrunner in Solid Waste Management in India, made a pledge on the occasion of the World Environment Day celebrations in New Delhi that over the next decade, going beyond its Extended Producer Responsibility, it will deploy superior solutions so that 100 percent of its product packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
ITC also reiterated that it is committed to scale up its solid waste management programmes and sustain its leadership position as a Solid Waste Recycling Positive Company. Nakul Anand, Executive Director of ITC Ltd, made the pledge on behalf of ITC in the august presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ITC's flagship initiative "Wellbeing Out of Waste" covers over 77 lakh people in the country as on this World Environment Day. ITC's initiatives in the solid waste management of which plastic waste management is a significant component, aim at providing a 360-degree solutions framework to address the critical issue of waste management through packaging optimization, resource conservation, recycling of waste generated in its operations, source segregation, collection, reuse and recycling. Already over 99 percent of waste generated in ITC's operations is recycled. ITC's holistic solid waste management initiatives today extend to 10 states across the country, covering cities, towns, villages and temples.
In a true spirit of public-private-people partnership, ITC's waste management models including the flagship initiative Wellbeing Out of Waste, encompass community awareness, segregation, promotion of recycling and reuse through capacity building and development of social entrepreneurship. 100% dry waste including plastic waste is sent for recycling.
"The problem of solid waste management is one of the epic proportions and requires each organ of the society and more so, enterprises that are large economic organs of the society, to make a meaningful contribution. We in ITC are extremely committed through our initiative of Wellbeing out of Waste (WOW), which focuses on providing an end-to-end sustainable and a scalable solution spanning the entire value chain right from awareness, segregation, collection and promotion, reuse or recycle of solid waste. The benefits of these are already available to 77 lakh citizens of the country and over time, we are going to scale this up and enhance our contribution to the Prime Minister's Vision of Swachh Bharat," said Managing Director of ITC Ltd, Sanjiv Puri.
"As a Company which is carbon positive, water positive and solid waste recycling positive for over a decade, ITC is committed to shaping a secure, sustainable and inclusive future through superior Triple Bottom Line performance," he added.
Other than the Wellbeing Out of Waste (WOW) programmes that is operational in cities and large towns, ITC has initiated a number of community-managed projects in villages and towns to address the issue of waste management. Under ITC's Green Temple initiative, three of Tamil Nadu's eminent temples are turning their premises into zero garbage zones by recycling the organic waste from daily offerings - benefitting both the temples and their neighbourhoods with cleaner and healthier surroundings.
From the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate to the colonies of the national capital, WOW's mantra of household level waste segregation, composting and recycling is rapidly gaining ground. ITC is also collaborating with the municipal corporations of Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Saharanpur, Muzaffarpur, among others to ensure cleaner and greener cities.
WOW works by building partnerships, giving each stakeholder including rag-pickers and waste workers a role and responsibility and leveraging their capabilities as productively as possible. It optimises resources - using existing infrastructure where available and creating new where required. Designed to be a viable business model, it creates value for all players and generates employment, boosts incomes and supports livelihoods for economically backward groups. The stakeholders involved are households, waste workers, urban local bodies/municipal corporations.
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