H-west ward's campaign aims to promote the use of paper or cloth bags among shopkeepers and residents of the area with the help of SHG
In an eco-friendly move, vendors and hawkers of the city's shoppers' paradise — Bandra's Linking and Hill Road — will soon switch over to paper or cloth bags. Few of the shop associations from Bandra, Santacruz, and Khar areas have extended their support to the H-west ward's 'Plastic-free zone' initiative.
Garnering additional support, the resident associations from Union Park, Pali Hill, and Linking Road have also pushed forward the idea of replacing the use of plastic with paper bags. The ward has also tied up with a women's self-help group (SHG), with an aim to provide livelihood, and have placed its first order
The SHG has received an order from the shop and resident associations of 12,000 paper bags and over 500 cloth bags. They plan to keep up with the demand as and when shop owners request for the bags.
Deepa Shinde, 44, a member of the SHG, said, "Few women were given training by the BMC officials and they passed on these skills to other women in the group. The demand for these eco-friendly bags is increasing rapidly.
The civic body is helping us to market the product and are helping us to generate revenue from the initiative."
The ward has around 102 SHGs and the initiative benefits over 1,000 women. The campaign was inaugurated by MLA Ashish Shelar and corporator Alka Kelkar at Raosaheb Patwardhan Park in Bandra.
The Assistant Commissioner of H-west ward Sharad Ughade, said, "Through this initiative, we wanted to support the SHG women as well as do our bit in protecting the environment. With the help of citizens, this is a possible solution that can help to make the area free from plastic."
The bags which are sold as per kg are made from old paper which the SHGs procure from scrap dealers. Besides this move, the ward has also started taking steps to recycle e-waste and segregation of wet and dry waste at the source.
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