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Can Bengaluru's plastic waste be recycled for world-clbad packaging products sold on the international market?
This is precisely what a city-based waste management start-up is doing as part of its fair trade plastics recycling initiative.
To advance the idea, the social enterprise, Hasiru Dala Innovations, which strives to create better livelihoods for garbage collectors, has forged links with The Body Shop, the global brand of personal care, and Plastics for Change, a Canadian company.
Here's how it works: Hasiru Dala Innovations groups PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic at its center, which it buys from a network of waste collection managers, dry waste collection centers and scrap dealers. a fair price.
The startup's cluster center sorts and then transfers PET plastic to The Body Shop. Hasiru Dala says his center is audited by the World Fair Trade Organization to verify compliance with its standards. Plastics for Change has a mobile application to ensure traceability and transparency in the supply chain.
According to Hasiru Dala Innovations, Shekhar Prabhakar, co-founder of the start-up, has exported up to 64 tons of PET plastic waste to The Body Shop's recycling center in the Netherlands. This was converted to food grade PET, which in India would have been downgraded to polyester yarn.
To mark the fair trade initiative for recycled plastics, a 3D installation of the Bengaluru startup's 3D waste sorting machine is being set up in the busy Borough market in London. The installation was created with the plastic collected and exported by the startup.
The installation gives a human face to the plastic solution. As the founders of the startup say, this is a reminder of the vital role played by the informal waste sector as the first line of defense against the burgeoning plastic pollution crisis.
A former garbage collector, Annamma, who now works in the city as a DWCC operator, puts the role of the informal sector into perspective by talking about her own experience.
& # 39; physically demanding;
"I've been collecting garbage for about 30 years since I was a kid. It's really hard and physically demanding. Waste pickers face all sorts of difficulties, including harbadment, late payments and health problems, "explains Annamma.
Yet, thanks to the garbage collection, she managed to raise a family and send her children to the university. "I'm really proud of what I'm doing. I think we play a very important role in clean cities and in recycling the huge amounts of plastic waste produced by society, "she says.
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