Itanagar, Jun 3: The Northeast Waste Collective (NWC) participated in The Himalayan Cleanup 2024, in collaboration with the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Dirang and the community of Sangti Valley, with a focus on cleaning the Sangti river on May 28 last. All in all, 100 Jawans of the Indo Tibetan Border Police, Dirang came down to Sangti Valley on a rainy morning to do the river cleanup in order to protect the environment and support the local communities that depend on it. 
Northeast Waste Collective, an NGO working with the local community in handling waste since 2020, had done a thorough recce to identify four main cluster areas which had a lot of plastic and other dry waste strewn around. There were 4 groups made, each consisting of 25 Jawans and 2-3 team leaders from the local community per group. The ITBP, NWC with the assistance of the local community and children who were part of the ongoing Eco Champs 2024, collected a whopping 378.7 kgs of waste in 40 sacks in an organized and professional manner. 
The waste that was collected, was then segregated in three main categories- recyclables, non-recyclables and reject. The recyclables were further segregated so that it can be channelized for recycling. Sangti Valley has a community owned and operated Material Recovery Facility from where recyclables are regularly sent for recycling through local scrap dealers. All plastic waste categories were then clubbed together and segregated brand wise as part of the brand audit which is the main component of the Himalayan Cleanup. 
The top five polluters identified from the brand audit were Heaven Aqua, Mountain Dew (PepsiCo), Bikaji, Coca Cola and Maggi. The reason behind doing this is to understand who are the biggest polluters in the Himalayan region so that we can demand accountability in fulfilling their Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations as per the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2024 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the organizers said in a statement. 
As per EPR, brand owners are supposed to ensure that the waste generated from their products are collected and sent for recycling. All types of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods are now reaching the remotest corners so it's about time that the brand owners ensure that the journey back is just as strong.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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