Pune:  In a unique collaboration, ITC and SWaCH will work with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to create a scalable and sustainable model to incentivise collection of multi-layer plastic (MLP) waste and channelise it for recycling. The programme will create an additional income stream for waste collectors involved in collection by sorting of MLP waste. The  set-up in Uruli Devachi can process 200 MT of MLP waste monthly with the potential to be efficiently scaled up to cover the entire city.

The initiative also marks the launch of a MLP waste storage facility on the World Environment Day, in Uruli Devachi. Municipal Commissioner  Saurabh Rao, Joint Commissioner DS Molak,  ITC Limited Head of Projects, EHS and Quality Assurance Chitranjan Dar, waste picker union KKPKP General Secretary Harshad Barde, Swach Co-Founder Lakshmi Narayan, Deputy Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) Madhav Jagtap were present on the occasion.

Mangal Umap, a SWaCH member and one of the first to contribute in the new programme, said, “This (MLP) was one of the waste items that we did not know what to do with. Storage is not easy as it’s voluminous and no one was willing to take it. It ended up as inert waste in landfills.”

According to  Chitranjan Dar, “With the ITC-SWaCH-PMC partnership for the city of Pune, we are taking yet another landmark step in building a model which goes beyond segregation of solid waste, to addressing one of the acute challenges of managing and recycling of the mounting MLP waste.”