Srinagar, March 24: A trust in north Kashmir’s Handwara is paying people for handing over polythene to them.
North Kashmir Charitable Trust has started this initiative to make Handwara town polythene-free.
Talking to Rising Kashmir, Dr Mudasira, founder of the trust, said while there is a lot of focus and emphasis on cleanliness from the Central and State/UT governments, the mission can only be achieved if the citizens also contribute their bit.
“I had been thinking for a long time about doing something for mother nature, and finally, after much effort, I hired some people who will be collecting polythene from door to door,” she said.
Initially, we started this process in the main town of Handwara, and in the coming months, we will expand it to other areas of the district, and then in the neighboring districts, she added.
Dr Mudasira said there will not be any clean water or productive land in the next decade if attention is not paid to cleanliness. “Many people heard the message, and it also gave them insight into a bigger problem: the buildup of polythene garbage. Due to its inability to disintegrate, even in garbage pits, polythene continued to be a problem,” she said.
At present, our men are collecting the polythene from garbage, and in the coming time, they will be visiting mohallas to collect the polythene, she said, adding that the households and shopkeepers can save polythene and get compensated for it.
“If we look some years back, in this season, hundreds of plants were growing themselves around us, but since the massive use of polythene, we are witnessing a drastic change that needs to be given much attention. Some people at this stage are saying different things but are not paying attention to them,” she said.
She continued: “Earth is a closed-loop system; hence, its supply of resources is finite. How to properly care for the resources that mother nature offers us is the issue we are trying to address. Moving away from the linear consumption model of extracting, creating, utilizing, and burning is necessary to achieve this. Instead, by using a value chain, we want to foster responsibility.”
“Our solution focuses on reducing polythene consumption, with the intention of eventually expanding it to help with the recycling of other materials like glass and aluminum. Last but not the least, we want to work toward a zero-waste strategy in which all waste is recycled, such as when plastic is converted into a more durable material, like a tile,” Dr Mudasira added.
