Nagpur: United by a motto to make Nagpur plastic-free, over 400 volunteers from ‘Nagpur Ploggers’ collected plastic and glass waste from five Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) zones during Ploggathon 2021, in association with the civic body on Saturday.
Nagpur Ploggers was founded on December 12, 2020 by Amal Sutone and Kaustubh Farfad and comprises members of all ages. Alarmed by the amount of plastic waste being dumped everyday by citizens, the duo came up with the idea of this initiative, inspired by 'Pune Ploggers'.
Plogging as a concept was first introduced in Sweden, and is a combination of two words — jogging and the Swedish word 'plocka upp', meaning 'to pick up'. It is an eco-friendly exercise in which people pick up trash while jogging or walking briskly to clean up an area and simultaneously take care of their health.
Esha Gharpure, one of the group’s volunteers in Dharampeth zone, said it had been carrying out drives every Saturday and Sunday from 6.45am to 8am, but Ploggathon 2021 was a mega drive covering Dhantoli, Satranjipura, Laxmi Nagar, Dharampeth and Hanuman Nagar zones. “Though our government has banned the use of plastic, it is still being used widely on a day-to-day basis. Not only does that pollute the environment, but it also affects animals and ultimately us by entering our ecosystem. Orderly disposal of non-biodegradable waste also ensures animals do not get harmed by it. We appeal to the citizens of Nagpur to apply the 3Rs principle of reduce, reuse, and recycle,” she added.
Another volunteer Maitreyee Pingle said the group collected over 1,000kg plastic and 500kg glass waste on Saturday and handed it to the NMC. “We took all the precautions mandated by Covid guidelines,” she added.
Co-founder Amal said the city’s plogging community was growing bigger with each passing day. “More than 1,100 people — students, lawyers, engineers, doctors, architects — have joined us from all across the city. Many first-timers joined us today.”
He added, “The United Nations has come up with 17 sustainable development goals out of which proper management of plastic waste is one, and we are on it.”
His partner Kaustubh chimed in, “We want to educate people so that they join the drives every weekend. Youth is the future of our country and has an important part in making this impossible possible."