Hailakandi Municipal Board introduces 'plastic bank' in a bid to protect environment

The Hailakandi Municipal Board has opened a plastic bank where citizens can go and deposit the banned plastic items which will be sent for recycling.

Inaugurating the plastic bank at Hailakandi Municipal Board in presence of Executive Officer, Prodip Timung, ward members, SHG members and other officials of the municipal board on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said this initiative has been taken to bring about behavioural modification and encouraging 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. The bigger challenge is in bringing about behavioural modification and encouraging an eco-friendly lifestyle,” said Jalli.

Making an impassioned plea to the citizens to shun single use plastic items, DC Jalli said, “This will be a collection point of single use plastic like water bottles, covers, water packets etc. I request all the citizens to deposit the plastic trash in the plastic bank. The plastic items collected will be sent to cement factory for recycling purposes or be used to make paved blocks.”

Following her appeal, some vendors instantaneously came forward by depositing stockpiles of plastic bags. The Deputy Commissioner went on a felicitation drive of the vendors and gifted them with paper and cloth bags creatively designed from old saris by local SHGs under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission. The bags had the message ‘For not using a plastic bag, we congratulate you’ inscribed on them. 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 for ushering in a healthy and wealthy Hailakandi.

It may be mentioned that the district administration has already banned single use plastic in August this year.