Plastic usage is the biggest challenge to the environment all over the world. Many countries are unable to do scientific recycling of this plastic. Countries like India are facing big challenges in the control of its use and also how to dispose of it correctly. The worst problem is seen in the Rural and Tribal parts of India, where there are no proper methods for waste disposal. CFI/IB is working on a sponsorship program in the Rural, Urban, and Tribal parts of India for the last 27 years, where it has found that plastic waste management is a big problem. The local governments are trying their best to control the usage of plastic by banning some plastic bags to carry material, but still, many other plastic products are thrown in the open without proper care. PET bottles are one of the biggest issues in Rural and Urban Areas, as people after use throw them in the open. The central government of India had appealed to many countries that have experience in plastic waste management to take up this challenge in India.

Children’s Future India (CFI) with the help of Indias Barn appealed to EMPOWER, a Norwegian company to run a plastic eradication program in India. To its positive response, CFI started working on a plastic eradication program in coordination with Empower in October 2019. The pilot project was started in Hamarpur village in October 2019, with the help of a specially appointed lady, a head of the plastic waste collection center, who is trained in the operation.

When the IB team visited this village after one year, they were surprised to see the cleanliness in the village, now no plastic was thrown on the road, people use to collect plastic at home and then sell it to the plastic center. The usage of low-density plastic was on the decline due to awareness programs, the Plastic bottle collection remains the same, but we hardly saw anybody throwing them on the road. This collected plastic was sold to one vendor, who ultimately recycles this plastic in another state, using the end product of this plastic for clothes [T-shirts], for construction of roads, or in some fabric material. Empower has a system rather than an application to track this plastic product from its beginning to the end product, so they know where the plastic has been disposed of and for what cause.

The success of the Plastic center unit at Hamrapur village propelled CFI/IB/Empower to initiate another center in another village named Kharpada. This center too had a good response from Villagers and now we have two centers running simultaneously in two villages where we can dispose of about 2000 kg of Plastic bottles per month whereas from both centers we had disposed of around 55000 kilograms of plastic till December 2022.