Civic body, NGO members collect trash in Worli village

Mumbai: In an attempt to render the Dadar beach plastic waste-free, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), along with a NGO led by Chinu Jeet Kwatra, has started apprising the locals of Worli village about the hazards of dumping plastic in water bodies this monsoon. A lot of the plastic garbage ends up at Dadar beach from Worli village, BMC officials said.

Mr Kwatra, who has been spearheading the cleanliness drive at Dadar beach since last year, is credited with removing 300 tonnes of garbage from the beach. His NGO has now started a mission to collect plastic waste from Worli village every week. “We have been going door-to-door, asking people to discard single-use plastic that they have at their homes. While we have been conducting clean-ups at Dadar, we realised that a large part of the trash ends up at the beach from Worli village. We conducted a three-day trial recently and got a good response after which, we have decided to do this every week,” said Mr Kwatra.

During the trial period itself, the group has collected around 30kg plastic waste from 300 homes and shops. Most of the plastic waste is in the form of plastic bottles, plastic containers, and plastic bags. After collecting plastic waste from a home, the NGO volunteers paste a sticker on the door of that home which reads, “I promise to #BeatPlasticPollution”.

The BMC too has been providing trailers and trucks to collect the waste, which is later sent to recyclers. “We need to change the mindset of people on the ground. Even when the BMC workers come to collect garbage at 7am, the locals do not put out the garbage on time and later dump it openly near the place. Hence, we are trying to sensitise the people about the issue,” said Mr Kwatra. The group plans to replicate this kind of collection of plastic waste in other places in Mumbai.