As part of WOW (Wealth out of Waste), an initiative by cigarette-to-hospitality player ITC Limited in association with city-based Ramky Group, the former will be launching a campaign to nurture 100,000 trees by recycling 5,000 tonne of paper across the Hyderabad city and approaching citizens, students, corporate houses, business establishments to donate recyclables.
The campaign is part of the 1st anniversary of WOW, to be celebrated on July 1. The programme is operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi, Bhadrachalam, Coimbatore and Madurai.
“Recycling today is clearly one of the most important and viable ways to combat the challenges of resource depletion. At least 30 per cent of the net MSW (municipal solid waste) is recyclable. By reducing inert materials, the net MSW could be 373 million tonne a year and at a conservative recovery level of 15 per cent at an all-India level, 56 million tonne of recyclables like paper, plastics, metal, and glass can be recovered a year through source segregation,” Jogarao Bhamidipati, vice president (commercial, paperboards and specialty paper division) of ITC Limited, told mediapersons here on Wednesday.
Bhamidipati said in any developed country, the dry waste generated was to an extent of 70 per cent, while in India it was just about 8 per cent.
“On an average, a human being in India generates 0.5 kg of garbage per day, while in the US it is 2.4 kg per day, out of which 40 per cent is recycled,” he said.
Source segregation of recyclables reduces the load on natural resources, provide cost-effective raw material to industry, improve health and hygiene and provide clean and green surroundings, he added.
