MATHURA: PepsiCo Foundation and waste management company Recity Network have launched a campaign to raise awareness of responsible waste disposal in Mathura-Vrindavan, India. The “Purna Swachhta Campaign” will focus on engaging and educating people on the need for waste segregation and no littering. The initiative will also aim to train waste workers in the city to become waste professionals. The campaign will run in three wards in the city, with students being encouraged to practice waste segregation at home and avoid littering. The “Purna Swachhta Campaign” follows the launch earlier this year of the “Purna – Unnati ki Sajhedaari” initiative.
Children across schools will be encouraged to make a conscious choice of not littering their community, the city they live in and practice waste segregation at home. Throughout the month-long program, PepsiCo Foundation and Recity will focus on generating awareness among school kids through various on-ground activities including painting competition, plastic donation drives, thank you letters to waste workers, clean-a-thons and garbage vulnerable point transformation. The campaign will recognize the efforts undertaken by students, schools, citizen communities and waste workers to bring about a change by recognizing them as “Purna Swachhta Champions”.
‘Purna – Unnati ki Sajhedaari’ initiative was launched earlier this year with the vision to transform Mathura-Vrindavan into one of the cleanest cities in the country. The collaborative efforts by PepsiCo Foundation, Mathura-Vrindavan Municipal Corporation and Recity Network Pvt. Ltd. have successfully trained over 4,000 property units, so far, on source segregation. Over 20,000 citizens were reached out and 10 Lakh tourists were engaged on waste segregation and no littering awareness campaigns through hoardings, banners, shop danglers, clean up drives and various events and stakeholder partnerships. Owing to these efforts, over 300 MT of municipal waste was diverted from landfills. In addition to this, over 100 waste workers were professionalized.
They were trained on health, hygiene, workplace safety, technology and financial literacy. 5 health camps were organized, and waste workers were vaccinated against Hepatitis B. Various welfare schemes were also unlocked for them such as Health ID, Aadhar card, e-Shram and Life insurance schemes. A Self-Help Group – Radha Rani Swayam Seva Samuh – was formed with 10 women waste workers, who are being upskilled and empowered financially through vocational skill building training program.
Commenting on the campaign, Juhi Gupta, Head Sustainability, PepsiCo India said, “Aligned to the Government of India’s flagship program, Swachh Bharat Mission, we are delighted to extend our partnership with Recity and launch ‘Purna Swachhta Campaign’ in Mathura-Vrindavan. At PepsiCo India, we are consistently working towards building a more inclusive positive value chain with sustainability at its core under our winning with pep+ philosophy. Since the inception of our ‘Purna – Unnati ki Sajhedaari’ initiative, we have onboarded 100+ workers and engaged 700 students from 5 schools in the city. With Mathura-Vrindavan Municipal Corporation’s support we will scale our efforts to make Mathura-Vrindavan the cleanest city in India.”
Suraj Nandkumar, Co-founder & CEO, Recity Network Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are happy to extend our partnership with PepsiCo Foundation through – ‘Purna Swachhata Campaign’ and ensure that Mathura-Vrindavan becomes the cleanest tourist city of India. The success of the pilot of Initiative Purna is a testimony to our mission of ensuring economic resilience of waste workers. We look forward to maximizing circularity of plastic by retaining them in our economy and out of the environment with inclusive and participatory development of waste management systems while creating opportunities for all stakeholders to rise in the waste value chain.”
The ‘Purna Swachhta Campaign’ was kickstarted with a Plastic Donation Drive in 6 schools of Mathura-Vrindavan with support from Mathura-Vrindavan Nagar Nigam. The plastic collected during the drive will be used to build waste infrastructure in the city, showcasing that plastic need not be a waste, but a resource when segregated, collected, stored and processed responsibly.
