SDC Foundation and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) joined forces to beat plastic pollution by organising the ‘Great Himalayan Clean-Up & Brand Audit Drive’ in Mussoorie’s Company Garden and Buddha temple near the LBSNAA campus. Dr. Sanjeev Chopra, Director, LBSNAA, flagged off the event.
180 IAS officer trainees and faculty members from LBSNAA, Mussoorie, along with 15 members from SDC, participated in the clean-up. Over 150 kilograms of waste was collected and audited with the help of the LBSNAA sanitary staff.
The clean-up was followed by a waste and brand audit based on the legal principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) enshrined under national waste management laws and policies.
Two teams were created to clean the two identified locations. After the clean-up, mixed waste was brought to the segregation room situated inside the academy's campus. Academy's sanitary staff then initiated the waste and brand auditing exercise. The staff segregated different categories of plastic pollutants and identified the major corporate brands responsible for causing the plastic pollution in the region.
Large quantities of cold drink bottles, water bottles, Lay’s, Kurkure, ice cream and chocolate wrappers were segregated and audited by the staff. The segregated waste was further sent for recycling.
The Himalayan Clean-Up is an annual event conducted on May 26th across the Himalayan states of India. It was initiated in 2018 in conjunction to the ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ theme of World Environment Day. The main objective of the mass clean-up is to focus attention on the problem of waste in the mountains, specifically single use plastic waste.
The Himalayan region, long been portrayed as sacred, pristine and untouched, has a flip side too; of plastic clogged waterways, waste being rolled down hill sides and burnt. The mountains are severely challenged with an ever increasing problem of waste accumulation which is compounded by the fact that mountain regions are popular tourist destinations and tourism is a major creator of waste.
In 2018, the Himalayan Clean-Up cleaned up 250+ sites from 12 Himalayan states, with participation of more than 15000+ volunteers mobilised by more than 200 organisations. It brought to fore the issue of waste in the mountains through a day dedicated to cleaning up our mountains and understanding what is causing the mess. The information generated from the clean-up has enabled strong advocacy for sustainable waste management in the mountains.
