Mumbai: Taking best-out-of-waste from a concept stage to a reality, a couple in Hyderabad is giving a new lease of life to plastic waste. After making bus shelters, dining table, furniture and water tanks from discarded plastic, Prashant Lingam and his wife Aruna Kappagantula, will now make a room entirely from plastic waste in collaboration with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
Hyderabad recycles 1,300 kilos of plastic waste to build an office room
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The initiative is in line with this year’s theme of World Environment Day (June 5) which is to beat plastic pollution.
Since this year’s theme is to beat plastic pollution, we decided to observe the day and spread awareness by making something out of plastic waste. The plastic waste is a menace in the city, especially during monsoons. Often, the polythenes clog the drains causing floods. This project will showcase the grim reality, Hari Chandana Dasari, Central Zone Commissioner, GHMC tells NDTV.
She further adds, “To spread awareness on the office room, all the information regarding how much of recycled plastic was used, life span of the room, how many bottles and carry bags were prevented from going to landfills, etc will be displayed in the room.”
The motive behind building the office room in a sports complex, a place with multi-purpose facility, is to tell people that plastic, an item that takes upto 500 years to decompose, can be useful if recycled, says Prashant, founder of Bamboo House India that aims to curb down city’s waste via the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle.
The awareness towards India’s one of the biggest crisis, waste management, is very minimal among the people. Despite the ban, people indulge in indiscriminate use of plastic items without realising its repercussions on future generation. Thus, this room will serve as a symbol of plastic waste, reminding people about high volumes of plastic generation and the need to eliminate it. It will also tell people that if you cannot curb your plastic use, recycle it and save the environment.
5.10 lakh plastic carry bags were recycled
The office room will comprise the same elements as any other regular room i.e. roofs, walls, ceiling and tiles, except that the four elements will created from plastic waste. While the roofing sheets will made from 800 kilos of shredded plastic waste, tetra packs will be used as walling boards for the washroom. 4.5 lakh polythene bags will be used to make 13×13 floor tiles. Tiles made from 60,000 plastic carry bags will be used to construct the pavement leading to the office. The walling of the room will be done using bamboos.
Besides recycled plastic, other kinds of reused waste will also be seen in the complex. For instance, the furniture will be made from scraped materials likes tyres and drums. Fencing around the complex will done using thousands of plastic bottles.
The project kickstarted four months back when the GHMC approached Prashant to make a room inside the sports complex.
Since the project is a first in the city, Prashant outsourced the construction of paver tiles, roofing sheets and walling boards to companies dealing with recycled plastic in Delhi and Gujarat. The roofs, sheets, tiles were imported to Hyderabad last month. Since then, nine people from the organisation have been working round the clock to design and create the structure.
The best-to-waste project is being funded by the GHMC. Building an office room from recycled waste is much more cost effective than the regular ones points out Ms Dasari, “a regular construction would cost upto Rs 25 lakhs. We have invested Rs 7 lakhs in this project. Besides, the tiles made out of plastic waste are much stronger and durable.”
From providing waste materials to giving permissions and money, the corporation has collaborated with the husband-wife duo on several occasions in the past.
Once this project is completed, the couple will continue their mission of reducing the plastic burden in the city. Their next immediate goal is to bring local organisations working towards waste management under one umbrella. Prashant believes that working in unison will help the city in dealing with its garbage crisis in a more effective way.
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