CB BureauDabur India Limited has launched a plastic waste-collection drive, called ‘My 10 Kg Plastic,’ in collaboration with East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA). This ongoing initiative is running a series of programmes to build awareness about plastic waste disposal and create behavioural change in communities regarding segregation and safe disposal of plastic waste. This is part of Dabur’s commitment towards becoming a plastic waste-neutral company by 2021.
The plastic waste collected under this initiative is sent to IPCA’s waste-collection centres across Delhi-NCR. The collected waste is then sent to recyclers and disposal units, instead of landfills, rivers and oceans.
A Sudhakar, head of CSR, Dabur India Ltd, informs CauseBecause that the initiative is intended to encourage people to recycle the 10 kg plastic waste that each individual generates every year. A van has been deployed to collect plastic waste from households. Residents can give a missed call to 8882169968 and Dabur’s executives will call them back, prepare a route map, and ensure doorstep collection of the plastic waste. To further incentivise people, the company is giving away cotton bags to the people participating in this programme. Awareness sessions are being organised in schools, encouraging children to bring their plastic waste, which will be collected by the company’s van.
Dabur has also launched an app and a microsite for this initiative. People are given reward points for each kg of plastic waste deposited by them – they can redeem these points for a variety of products. The company plans to engage an external agency to conduct a detailed impact assessment to identify both qualitative and quantitative impact of this initiative.
As per Sudhakar, the company is on course to becoming a plastic waste-neutral company by March 2021. By then it will be collecting, processing and recycling 20,000 MT of post-consumer plastic waste. Launched in 2018″19 in six states, it is now expanding the plastic waste-management initiative to 25 states in 2019″20, collecting 12,400 MT plastic waste and sending them for recycling/processing. In this way, the company will collect back 100 per cent of the plastic waste generated by its packaging.