The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated a novel green initiative this month. On January 23, they launched India’s very first ‘garbage cafes‘ in Najafgarh Zone that offer free meals in restaurants in exchange for plastic waste.
As of January 28, the SDMC has opened 23 more such cafes across the national capital.
Anybody depositing one kg of plastic wastes including empty water bottles, cold drink bottles, plastic canes, and other such items with ‘garbage cafes’ would get a coupon for a free breakfast, lunch, or dinner in restaurants partnering with the south Delhi’s civic body.
“Intensifying the unique initiative ‘Plastic Lao Khana Khao’, 23 more Garbage Cafes were opened in South, Central, and West zones,” the SDMC said in an official statement.
New Delhi Mayor Anamika inaugurated a cafe at Nathu Sweets located in Defence Colony. She said that given ‘Swachh Survekshan’, the SDMC has adopted a slew of measures under which the idea of a ‘garbage cafe’ was taken up.
Twelve garbage cafes have opened in South Zone, 10 in Central Zone while one cafe has been opened in West Zone.
Radha Krishnan, who is the SDMC Najafagarh Zone Deputy Commissioner, said in a separate official statement that this initiative would not only help keep the city plastic-free but also help needy people and rag-pickers who can take advantage of this facility to avail themselves free meals under the scheme.
A 2015 study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 60 major Indian cities estimated that these cities were generating around 4,059 tonnes of plastic waste on daily basis. Extrapolating the data for the entire country, an answer to a question in Parliament estimated that the figure would be 25,940 tons per day. New Delhi topped the list with 690 tonnes of daily plastic waste, followed by Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Although the Government has taken several measures including the ban on single-use plastic, the situation is still grave with rising landfills that consist mostly of non-biodegradable waste.
Initiatives like garbage cafes come as a ray of hope.