Bangalore commits to 1500 tonnes of reduction in garbage

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Courtesy The Alternative

Bangalore commits to 1500 tonnes of reduction in garbage going to BBMP by World Environment Day (5th June 2013) with a significant support of the corporate sector on the 4th day of BBMP’s “Wake Up, Clean Up Bengaluru” expo at Freedom Park.

Autor*in RESET , 02.08.13

The 4th day of “Wake Up, Clean Up Bengaluru” at Freedom park saw a huge number of key industry leaders and decision makers meet over “Power Nashta”, discussing the systemic asks and the roll out plan to achieve the common goal of the citywide movement “Wake Up, Clean Up Bengaluru” of a garbage free city.

Today’s “Power Nashta” session witnessed a power pack of people right from Mr. Dinesh Gundu Rao MLA, Mr. N.A Harish, MLA, Shantinagar, Mr. Shankarlinge Gowda BBMP, Mr. Siddaiah BBMP Commissioner, Mr. Harish, Deputy Mayor, Mr L Krishnan  Chairman, CII, Southern Region, Mr. Lakshminarayan, President- BCIC, Mr. H V Harish, Senior VP- BCIC, Mr S. Ejaz Ahmed Sait, Chairman, Civic Affairs, FKCCI to Industry Leaders like Ms. Vinita Bali, MD Britannia Industries Ltd, , Mr. Pradeep Kar, Chairman and Managing Director, Microland, Mr. Joga Rao Bhamidipati, Vice President, Commercial, ITC Paperboards, Ms. Rama NS, Electronic City Industries Association’s, Ms. Ines Miranda, Rep for American Chamber of Commerce and Ms. Kalpana Kar, the orchestrator of Wake Up Clean Up movement, the right mix of people to discuss the hurdles and the effective feasible solutions.

This huge target looked achievable with the commitments of:

  1. Launch of pilot waste management programs in key areas in Bangalore on the 15th February 2013, spearheaded by FKCCI
  2. 3 wards in every constituency will become zero waste wards
  3. BBMP commits to empower  all 198 wards  with Dry waste centre’s in 3 months
  4. Mr. Krishnan, CII committed to make 10 companies as base of excellence, setting  examples for other companies to emulate.
  5. Vinita Bali, M.D, Britannia has been championing this cause and has set a strong example to peers. Britannia took 3 weeks from awareness to execution. With a Zero waste factory in Bidadi and campus on Old airport road, Britannia saw a reduction of 1 tonne waste which used to go to BBMP earlier. She also spoke about Britannia’s example of incentivizing the employees who become ambassadors for waste. She put definition to the discussion by urging everyone to live up to their commitment before World Environment Day and convinced by example that it is possible.
  6. Sri Valliappa from BCIC committed to institute an award for meeting high quality standards in waste management practices among industries. Mr S. Ejaz Ahmed Sait, Chairman, Civic Affairs, FKCCI also committed to institute an award for best civic practices by enterprises. And to extend it to the ward level.
  7. Ms. Rama, President of ELCIA spoke about the SWM which was started on the electronic city campus a year ago. The idea was to have a central facility that can be used by small and mid-sized companies for waste management. The facility now can handle 2 tonnes of solid waste every day. This quarter has been declared by ELCIA as the SWM quarter. At the end of this quarter, ELCIA would be a zero waste campus by June 5th.Rama also committed to champion other industry associations as well.
  8. Mr. Aroon Raman, CII Past President  and Mr.Pradeep Kar made a strong point of having a core team of 3-4 committee people supporting the MLA’s to achieve the goal. Followed by which each Enterprise committed and put down the name of 1 core team member or evangelist who would drive the project.
  9. Mr. Harish from ward No.67 put forward a great example of his ward saving 1 Lakh/month through processing the plastic  through KK plastics and sending the wet waste to farmers.

Today’s track was dedicated for Corporate, Campuses & Institution. The dignitaries who attended the corporate track were Ms. Kalpana Kar, Mr. Lakshminarayan,President of BCIC; Mr.N.A.Harish, MLA; Mr.Sreekanth K Arimanithaya’s Chief Human Resource officer, and also the VP at Britannia Industries Ltd; Mr.Jogarao Bhamidipati, VP Commercial at ITC Paperboards; Rohan Parikh, head of Green Initiatives and Infrastructure division at Infosys; Ms.Rama N.S, CEO of Electronic City Industries Association; and Mr. Pratap from Bosch.

The session started with Mrs. Kalpana Kar’s welcome speech followed by Mr. Sreekanth from Britannia presenting the success model of Britannia which is of business success as well, highlighting the 3 S’s for success – scale, speed and skill. Britannia committed to lead by example and soon make all the factories and campuses Zero Waste. Britannia saw a cost reduction in waste management by Rs 16,500/month.

Mr. Rohan Parikh from Infosys spoke about Infosys technology excellence in many areas of social causes and that they working on a technology for dry waste, which is a black box giving out charcoal, oil and gas. Infosys being the incubation of new ideas committed to be the Incubation partner for the movement.

Mr. Rao, stated that for ITC waste is wealth and have eradicated 4000 tonnes of waste per month. He highlighted the serious problem of paper in India and that 22 trees are required for producing 1 tonne paper and India currently imports a lot of paper from oversees market. The Indian market requirement for paper is 11,000 million tones and around 8000 million tonnes goes as garbage which can be recycled if segregated. ITC is pioneering the concept of producing laminates made out of wrappers which currently goes to the landfill. ITC Stationery committed to 10 senior managers to work on this initiative.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Alternative is an online media publication focused on sustainable living and social impact.

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