Noida: A daylong campaign by a residents’ group to rid the city of plastic yielded more than 1,200kg of the hazardous material on Sunday. Nearly 700 people from 50 sectors and several nearby villages participated in the drive and went around the city collecting single-use plastic waste through the day.
Organised by World Class Noida — the residents’ group — the campaign yielded the highest amount of waste from Sarfabad village. According to one of the members, the waste will now be turned into eco-bricks, which will be used for the construction of a public toilet in the city. A similar initiative, the organisers said, was being taken in Delhi.
Members of the group said although the campaign had been organised with an aim to collect 1,000kg of plastic waste, the residents managed to mop up 1,245kg of trash from 55 locations by the end of the day.
“We received encouraging participation from residents of different sectors as well as housing societies. The aim was to collect 1,000kg of waste, but we surpassed our target, thanks to the active support from all our members. After such an initiative, we are sure that residents of the city truly want to do their bit in bagging the top spot in the Swachhta rankings,” said Abhisht Kusum Gupta, one of the organisers.
The members told TOI that around 300kg of plastic waste was collected from Sarfabad village alone and a campaign was organised to clean up all the areas in the area where waste had accumulated.
Sonu Yadav, a youth from Sarfabad, said, “We were about 80 volunteers from the village. We also got support from some sanitation workers and cleaned up 5-6 spots where waste had collected. We got about 75 bags of plastic waste and also cleaned the wet waste simultaneously.”
The plastic waste collected on Sunday will be used by an NGO — Jago Bharat — to make eco-bricks, which, in turn, will be used for construction purposes. The organisers said the first such structure was being built as an experiment in Delhi. Following this, permission will be sought for more such structures, like public toilets, in Noida as well.
“Empty plastic bags will be filled into pet bottles to reinforce them, which will then be used to make eco-bricks. Going by the amount of waste collected on Sunday, about 500-600 bricks can be made from them,” said Akash Arya, team leader of Jago Bharat.
The group has also filed a petition at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the sale of single-use plastic material from Delhi to traders in Uttar Pradesh, including Noida and Ghaziabad. These include plastic bottles, packaging boxes, cutlery and other takeaway containers..