The Hailakandi Municipal Board has opened a plastic bank on Thursday where citizens can deposit the banned plastic items, which would be later sent for recycling.
Inaugurating the plastic bank, Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said the initiative has been taken to bring about behavioural modification and encourage an eco-friendly lifestyle.
“Under Swachhata Hi Seva campaign, single-use of plastic has been banned. We feel banning and penalising is the easier part,” Jalil said.
“The bigger challenge is to bring about behavioural modification and encourage an eco-friendly lifestyle,” Jalli added.
“This will be a collection point of single-use plastic like water bottles, covers, water packets etc,” Jalil said.
“I request every citizen to deposit the plastic trash in the plastic bank,” the DC further said.
She also informed that the collected plastic will be later sent to cement factories for recycling purposes.
“The plastic can also be used to make paved blocks,” she said.
Following her appeal, some vendors instantaneously came forward and deposited stockpiles of plastic bags.
The DC later gifted the vendors with paper and cloth bags that have been creatively designed from old saris by local self-help groups (SHGs) under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission.
The bags carry the message ‘For not using a plastic bag, we congratulate you’.
She also gifted them with amla candy made by SHGs and asked them to buy more from the SHGs to combat malnutrition and to make Hailakandi anemia-free.
Jalli also appealed to other businessmen to discard their single-use plastic items and help develop the entrepreneurial skills of the local SHGs by endorsing their handmade products.
