Uttarakhand NGO recycles 6,772 million tonnes of plastic waste in three years

As climate change continues to wreak havoc across the globe, there has been a call for people to reduce their carbon footprint by recycling waste. The Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Dehradun, has done its best to heed the call by recycling over 6,772 million tonnes of plastic waste in three years.

The NGO said Uttarakhand was an ecologically sensitive state and that plastic waste was bound to become a problem in the future. In the state, Dehradun contributes the highest percentage of plastic waste, amounting to 327.9 tonnes of plastic waste per day. The figure is set to increase in the coming years to 584.051 tonnes per day,  according to IPCA.

In an effort to counter the trend, the IPCA has adopted an inclusive model for waste segregation in the city. According to IPCA director Ashish Jain, the NGO has managed to collect, segregate and recycle 6,772 million tonnes of plastic waste in the city since 2018. Of this figure, almost “3,555 million tonnes of plastic waste was recycled in just one year in 2020,” Jain added.

IPCA uses an inclusive model based on engagement with stakeholders such as local urban bodies for plastic waste management. The NGO has been focusing on plastic waste management for the last 20 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged the public to stop using single-use plastics in his 2019 Independence Day speech. In March 2021, the Centre had proposed a plan to phase out the manufacture, use, sale, import, and handling of certain single-use plastic products by 2022.

According to research, around 43 percent of manufactured plastics are used for packaging purposes, with most of them being single-use.