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Dimapur, Aug. 9 (EMN): The results of The Himalayan Cleanup (THC) 2022 were revealed at an online meeting conducted on the occasion of Zero Waste Himalaya Day on August 8.
According to a THC 2022 press release, RP Gurung from Zero Waste Himalaya and IMI member from Sikkim mentioned that The Himalayan Cleanup is an annual event which was undertaken this year across the Indian Himalayan Region between May 26 to the 30th by Integrated Mountain Initiative and Zero Waste Himalaya.
During the online meeting, the brand audit revealed that the top 10 companies whose plastics were found polluting and littering the mountainscapes were PepsiCo India, CG Foods India Pvt. Ltd., Perfetti Van Melle, Perfetti Van Melle, ITC, Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd, Hindustan Coca Cola, Nestle, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Mondelez India Food Pvt. Ltd., and Dabur India Ltd., it stated.
It informed that THC is conducted to highlight the waste crisis in the Indian Himalayan Region and advocates for mountain sensitive policies, as well as individual change, and most importantly demand for sustainable products and packaging.
“The theme for THC therefore is, 'Reflect, switch and demand’ to motivate participants to move towards mindful and sustainable lifestyles as well as to create collective spaces for individuals to demand for improved systems and products to redress the problem of plastic pollution,” it stated.
It was reported that this year over 5000 participants undertook the clean up in more than 100 sites, and conducted a waste and brand audit which are aligned to the global brand audit of Break Free from Plastics. THC was led by over 100 educational institutions and 49 organisations including IMI State Chapters.
In Sikkim, THC 2022 was officially endorsed by the state education department with more than 70 schools taking part in the campaign.
THC entails collecting, segregating and counting the different pieces of plastic trash to understand the type of plastics, the categories of waste - whether food packaging, personal care products, household products, smoking and tobacco products and others, it stated.
Member of Zero Waste Himalaya and IMI, Priya Shrestha, pointed out that the data received from 65 sites revealed that a total of 114376 pieces of trash weighing 4143 kgs were collected from across the mountains out of which 92.7% of the wastes collected was plastic trash.
“What is most significant is that 72% of all plastic collected was non-recyclable like multi-layered plastic, tetra-pack, which is the root of the plastic crisis as these plastics have no solution. Though 28% of plastic waste collected was recyclable, trash such as PET bottles end up littering the mountains as even recyclable plastics are not collected due to collection, linkage and support challenges in the mountains,” it stated.
Zero Waste Himalaya and IMI member from Darjeeling, Roshan Rai, highlighted the need for producers to design out their packaging with more sustainable material as part of their extended producers’ responsibility.
While the role of the individual and the end of the pipeline waste manager is important, it is extremely important that companies who produce wastes take responsibility for their wastes, which is now mandated in the extended producer responsibility (EPR) notification within the plastic waste management rules, it stated.
Educational institutions were acknowledged for their tremendous stewardship and the top five schools from the 70 plus schools were Gyanoday Niketan, Darjeeling; King George School, Sikkim; Duga SSS, Sikkim; Sambhota Tibetan School, Darjeeling and Lamdon Model School, Leh.