Dehradun based students’ activist group Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) announced a campaign-‘Ghar Wapsi’ in which the group will send back the plastic wrappers to the respective companies that used them for packaging their products, so as to make them realise their responsibility and encourage alternatives for plastic wrapping. The plastic waste will be returned to the companies by November 9, which is also the State formation day.

Speaking at the Press Club here on Monday, MAD’s president elect Karan Kapoor said, “The dangers of plastic are known to everyone, yet all items, specially of daily necessities like biscuits, chips, soaps etc, can be found wrapped in plastic. Despite its hazardous nature, the manufacturing companies continue to wrap their products in plastic. Their rationale is that the alternatives to plastic will increase the cost of production of their products. The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2015 in its Section 9 clearly states that the primary responsibility of the collection of the plastic waste lies completely on the manufacturer of the product.”

Even after the Rules been laid down in 2015 and the Government reiterating the same in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 wherein source segregation of solid waste has been made mandatory, since there is no one to pressurise the manufacturers to check their plastic usage, they continue to flout the rules and flood our ecosystem with it.

In an attempt to raise voice against this, MAD, through its Ghar Wapsi campaign, shall collect wrappers of items of daily use from the residents in Dehradun, make bundles of the wrappers and then send them to the companies which have produced them.

This will act as a message from residents to the manufacturers that people/consumers do not want them to use plastic for wrapping their products, and that it is high time that they should think about alternatives to wrap them, said Kapoor.

The city-based students’ activist group will soon go to schools and other educational institutions of the city install collection boxes for the same, which would be sent to their respective companies after segregation.

MAD will also conduct clean-up and awareness drives in various parts of the city, specially at tourist spots throughout these two months in order to collect plastic wrappers and spread awareness about the campaign. It will also announce the collection centres on its social media handles, and establish as many centres as possible so that residents may easily contribute their bit.

The group also appealed to FMCG companies wrapping their products in plastic to use at least a small fraction of their profits in the research and development on the issue as to how the existing plastic wrappers could be utilised or destroyed and what could be the alternative way of wrapping goods so that they protect the product as well as not harm the environment.