A significant environmental effort saw over 370 kilograms of waste collected from the Sangti River in Arunachal’s West Kameng district during a cleaning drive under the Himalayan Cleanup campaign.
The initiative was organized by the Northeast Waste Collective (NWC), an NGO working on waste management since 2020 in collaboration with the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the local community of Sangti Valley.
The collected waste was meticulously segregated into three primary categories: recyclable, non-recyclable, and reject materials.
Recyclables were further sorted into sub-categories, including white plastic (polythene + LDPE), black polythene, colored plastic, hard plastic, cans, PET bottles, glass bottles, tetra packs, tin, fabric, and multi-layered packaging (MLP), among others, to facilitate the recycling process.
According to the organizers, the Sangti Valley boasts a community-owned material recovery facility, from which recyclables are routinely dispatched for recycling through local scrap dealers.
This system ensures that waste management is both systematic and sustainable.
As part of the Himalayan Cleanup’s brand audit, all categorized plastic waste was grouped and segregated by brand.
The audit identified Heaven Aqua, Mountain Dew (PepsiCo), Bikaji, Coca Cola, and Maggi as the top five polluters.
This categorization aims to highlight the primary contributors to pollution in the Himalayan region, urging accountability under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations stipulated by the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2024, issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The event saw the participation of around 100 ITBP jawans, who were commended for their dedication and contribution to the cleanup effort.
The NWC and the local community expressed their gratitude for the collective endeavor, which culminated in a day filled with positive interactions and a shared commitment to environmental conservation.