Plastic waste exported to India

KATHMANDU:

The PET Bottle Recollection Centre, run by the Himalayan Climate Initiative (HCI), Kathmandu started exporting plastic waste (PET bottles) to India from today.

The recollection centre has ragpickers working for it and HCI has made arrangements for improving the livelihood of socially discriminated ragpickers by buying the PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) waste they collect from Kathmandu’s streets at a fair price and by providing technical facilities.

This initiative of HCI is supported by a multi-stakeholder partnership involving Bottlers Nepal Ltd, German Development Cooperation and Ganesha Ecosphere — a recycling plant based in Kanpur, India. The UNHABITAT and Practical Action Nepal have also supported the initiative.

The PET Bottle Recollection Centre as a social enterprise aims to create green jobs for disadvantaged women, improve livelihood of thousands of ragpickers, and contribute to a cleaner environment in Nepal through an efficient and responsible mechanism for collection and disposal of used PET bottles in the country.

HCI also has been providing education, healthcare and capacity building needs to 300 ragpickers of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts with the help of volunteers. The PET Bottle Recollection Centre today dispatched the first consignment to India in the presence of Industry Minister Mahesh Basnet, Commerce and Supplies Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa, German Ambassador to Nepal Matthias Alfred Meyer and the Managing Director of Bottlers Nepal Salman Latif Rawn.

Source: THT