Helping to find riches from rags

UNUSUAL TIE-UP: Tetrapak India has sought the help of ragpickers to segregate its cartons for recycling.

Ragpickers in Mumbai and Delhi are working for a new cause. They are helping Tetrapak India sort out used tetrapak covers to be recycled into fibre meant for paper mills.

The multinational company has been benefiting from this association with rag pickers in Mumbai since 2004. Now, they have begun training rag pickers in Delhi.

According to Harit Recyclers' Association in Delhi, which works with ragpickers, about 600 of them have been trained to segregate tetrapaks and deliver them to godowns, from where they are taken to Khanna Paper Mill in Amritsar. They have delivered about 2 tonnes of tetrapak garbage so far and are paid Rs 4.5 a kg.

The ragpickers are enthusiastic about the project since they are paid the market rate without the involvement of middlemen.

Amitdeep Singh, environment director of Tetrapak India, says he started by tying up with ragpickers indirectly through an NGO in Mumbai, Sthree Mukthi Sangathan, which was involved in household waste segregation. With its help, the company was able to get ragpickers trained to identify tetrapaks from the garbage they collected.

These cartons were then sold to a papermill, which was more than happy to get fibre locally. Paper mills in the country usually have to import fibre but thanks to Tetrapak's system, they could now get good quality fibre delivered at their doorstep for half the charge.

Tetrapak introduced the system in Delhi in January this year. It got in touch with Development Links Foundation, an organisation that works with ragpickers' associations in the National Capital Region.

Development Links Foundation conducted workshops for ragpickers to enable them to identify tetrapaks while the company provided financial support. The organisation was also able to negotiate with the paper mill for a better price for the cartons.

"Tetrapak's main role is in creating awareness and providing monetary assistance," said Singh. The company recently bought a bailer, which helps to reduce the volume of the collected cartons by compressing them, thus increasing the amount of cartons that can be transported.

Tetrapak has initiated the system in Mumbai, Delhi and Goa and is now planning to expand to south India by the end of the year.

Our aim is to make every city aware of this and implement it. Through this programme, the ragpickers can earn money, the paper mills can save foreign exchange and most importantly, the environment benefits, says Singh.

Satisfied with the progress so far, the company is looking at contacting the railways and malls to widen their network. Tetrapak is also in talks with municipalities about having a solid waste management system in place, as well as how to get households to segregate their waste. It also hopes to get more companies involved in the project. Saving the environment should, after all, be everyone's priority.

For more, visit www.tetrapak.com