Bhubaneswar: In order to reduce plastic waste the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has designed the programme of providing one Aahaar Meal in exchange of half-a-kg of plastic at each Aahaar Centre.
As part of the initiative chalked out by BMC in collaboration with UNDP and Touchstone Foundation, Aahaar Kendra’s counters will accept/allow only one kg plastic per person per day in exchange of two coupons for the same day. In case of half kg plastic one coupon will be provided.
The representative of Touchstone Foundation at Aahaar Kendra will maintain date-wise record through a register with location of Aahaar Kendra, name, mobile number, amount of plastic deposited, and sign of depositor. The register will be countersigned by the representative of Touchstone Foundation.
Then, the UNDP will collect the plastic from the Aahaar Centre on weekly basis or whenever the bins are filled, whichever is earlier as intimated by the Touchstone Foundation representative working at the Aahaar Kendra.
The plastic deposited by the public will be weighed with a variation of +/- 10% to nearest whole number for exchange of meal.
The BMC DC (Welfare) will implement the drive “Meal for Plastic” and also will execute agreement between BMC, UNDP and Touchstone Foundation.
The initiative will be launched on Sunday at Kalpana Aahaar centre located in front of the State Museum. At the same time all Aahaar centers will start the programme.
There are 12 Aahar centres operating in Bhubaneswar. They are located near Capital Hospital, Sum Hospital, Kalinga Hospital/Press Chawk, Nayapalli, Rasulgarh, AIIMS-1, AIIMS -2, Kalpana Square, Master Canteen City Bus stand, Baramunda, Unit-II Ashok Nagar and Kalpana Sqaure.
