Kapil Chandni, entrepreneur, business mentor, military analyst, lecturer |
Safai Bank has diverted more than 50 lakh wrappers to be re-used or used as fuel. Schools and women's groups are partners to collect multi-layer plastic packaging material.
For environmentalist Rishi Agarwal, the tens of tonnes of plastic wrappers at the Deonar dumping ground were the environment’s biggest enemy. “They are not recyclable, so there are no takers for it. It just stays on in the environment forever,” he said.
Agarwal, 56, was referring to multi-layer packaging or MLP, a kind of plastic that is the favoured packaging material for potato chip and namkeen manufacturers, accounts for up to 50% of waste in some cities. To counter this growing ecological crisis of dumped MLP waste, Agarwal started the Safai Bank of India in 2018.
Modelled after regular banks, the Safai Bank of India has a ‘net-banking’ page, with the accounts all operated by school students.
Instead of money, the students deposit wrappers. “These are wrappers of everything, starting from biscuits to grocery items,” Agarwal said. Safai Bank aggregates from a large number as children in schools, from various backgrounds and families. Waste collected can be deposited once a week at a pre-designated space.
Waste collected by the Safai Bank collectors is given to organisations that fashion them into bags, and to cement manufacturers who are able to burn the material for fuel. Waste segregation and the value of protecting the environment are other lessons they pick up. Rag pickers do not pick up MLP waste because it has no sale value unlike PET bottles and other waste items, but children volunteers learn about the circular economy and the value of waste.
Safai Bank has diverted more than 50 lakh wrappers away from the dumping ground, to be re-used or used as fuel. More than 120 schools in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region partner with Safai Bank.
“MLP can be injurious to health if burnt at lower temperatures. But in cement factories, where it is burnt at a very high temperature, the noxious fumes don’t come out. In fact, the wrappers have the same calorific value as coal, making our collections very valuable,” Agarwal said.
Safai Bank volunteers and teachers have also begun to view the experience as a learning moment. Children learn about coal and calorific value of raw materials that go behind MLP. “It is a movement and we want to expand it across the country,” said Agarwal.
To counter the setback caused by the pandemic and school closures, Safai Bank engaged with housing societies in Mumbai. “It is easier to speak to children about the waste generated at their homes instead of taking them on a dirty trail to pick waste,” Agarwal said.
Safai Bank is now trying to expand its areas of wrapper collection, with the motto: don’t bin it, ban
