While the Governments at the Centre and the State are pressing for a ban on single use plastic, the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) has found a way to spread awareness about optimum use of plastic products through the popular Diwali Mela organised by Jharkhand IAS Officers Wives Association (JIASOWA) in Ranchi.
It is using the fair as a platform to bust the myths about plastic usage and put forth the technicalities of safe recycling of plastic products to the city folks.
The five-day fair, which has become the go-to-place for weekend revelers in the State Capital, is not only giving shopaholics a bang for their buck, but also acting as a catalyst for generating consciousness about environmental hazards and ways to minimize them, the organizers said on Saturday. The CIPET stall, put up right at the centre of the fair at Morhabadi Ground, is grabbing attention for all the right reasons. “With all the talking going on about single use plastic and plastic ban, people are obviously interested in knowing more about the safe ways of plastic recycling,” said Shreyank Kumar Mishra, a CPET instructor at the stall.
One of the largest and noticeable stalls at the fair, the CPET stall has seen a footfall of at least 100 people since the fair was inaugurated on Thursday. In fact, Chief Minister Raghubar Das also visited the stall and seemed intrigued by the plastic recycling technology showcased there, said Mishra. On visiting the stall, the representatives of the institute explain the process of plastic recycling and how used plastic can be put in an agglomerator and be reused for making new products. “The process is simple. The plastic products collected by rag pickers and cleanliness workers can be collected and put in an agglomerator to convert it to its raw form. This raw form may not be as durable as virgin plastic but it can be used for many purposes,” Mishra said.
The Government has also made plastic companies take complete responsibility of their products and their impact on the environment by introducing stricter rules under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The EPR is a globally standardized plastic manufacturing policy under which the manufacturer is responsible for recycling and disposing of plastic products.
The stall assumes significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for freeing the country of single use plastic by 2022. Modi, during his visit to Ranchi on September 12, called upon the youths of Jharkhand to discard the use of single use plastic products and support the Government in its environment-friendly initiative. Modi has been asking the people of India to shun single use plastic during most of his public addresses lately. Streets of the State capital too have been flooded with hoardings spreading the message of prohibiting single use plastic products. “The Government has already asked us to free the country of single use plastic. But it is always good to know how plastic manufacturers are being made more responsible and the techniques used for plastic recycling,” said Geetika Agarwal, a visitor at the stall on Saturday.
The Diwali Mela 2019, which will continue till Monday, witnessed a decent footfall on Saturday despite the weather playing a spoilsport. The stalls of handmade clothes and artifacts remained the main attractions on Saturday. Besides, bamboo products of Jharkhand and 3D paintings from Krishnanagar in West Bengal grabbed eyeballs. The fair had something in store for everyone – right from apparels to decorative items and a variety of pickles to raisins imported from Australia.
The fair visitors on Saturday were also enthralled by the performance of students from the Nritya Tal Dance Academy in the evening. The dance moves on popular numbers from Bollywood kept the audience glued to their seats. “People from every age group can enjoy here. I have come here with my family. While my kids are busy at the play zone, my sister and I have our eyes glued to the handmade sarees. My husband, the foodie that he is, is busy at the food court,” said Neha Srivastava, a homemaker from Kanke Road.
The fair is also spreading awareness about the various policies of the Government. Besides spreading voters’ awareness through the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) stall, it is also encouraging visitors to know more about the policies related to blue revolution, sweet revolution and other programmes of livelihood run by the Government. The Jharkhand Tourism stall has been showcasing the tourism potential of the State through Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and MX Media to the visitors at the stall.
