Garbage Café Gives Food In Exchange For Plastic
Initiative to Help Reduce Environmental Pollution by Helping Poor
Across the world, millions of tons of plastic waste are generated every day, and new initiatives are being taken that would help in the reduction of these large numbers. Similarly, India generates around 57, 000,000 tones of plastic waste daily, out of which only fourteen thousand tones are collected. The collected plastic waste is then often dumped in the streets, inside drains, and in landfills.
To help reduce environmental pollution in the country, Zeeshan Khan, an environmentalist, introduced an initiative in India by which Garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic. This initiative will help reduce the environmental pollution in the city as well as raise awareness in people towards using reusable products instead of disposable plastic materials.
Garbage Café
Garbage café was founded by Zeeshan Khan in the city of Ambikapur, India, in October 2019 and with the help of Ambikapur Municipal Corporation. The garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic, as the café accepts all kinds of plastic. This step was taken to help the poor and needy people of the city by bringing one kilogram of plastic, the person gets a free meal, and if half a kilogram, a snack is provided by the café. Garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic, and later, the plastic is sent to recycling centers. The revenue that comes from the center is then used to pay all the expanses of the café.
The initiative to open more as garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic has become very popular in the country and is spreading fast as many people now want to open these cafes in their own areas. Some people in Milan, Italy, got impressed and are now planning to open a similar garbage café in Italy. Most Indian cities are struggling with the huge amount of plastic wags and no proper ways to dump it as there are only a few fully maintained waste management systems across the country.
The city of Ambikapur is now the second cleanest city of India as it generates 13,000 pounds every month by selling plastic waste and recycled paper to several private companies, and the revenue is used to help the underprivileged section of society. In 2015, the plastic collected in the city was used to build a road, which has lasted up till now, even during the rainy seasons.
Ideas other than garbage café
New ideas are also circulating after the spread of garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic, including a plastic donation center in which people are urged to donate their plastic bags and move towards using paper bags or reusable cloth bags, which will help in getting rid of environmental pollution in the country. The collected plastic’s revenue will then be used for the welfare of society and help in the employment of the deprived sector of the city. Areas where roads are not developed will be made by the revenue outcome of this initiative.
Several other initiatives have taken place across India after garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic, including bartering one kilogram of rice with one kilogram of plastic, which was started by a bunch of local school children. Now the government wants the district to become completely clear of single-use plastic for which several citizens are also taking part. Around 70% of India’s plastic is single-use and is dumped either on streets or in drains, which affects the surrounding environment.
Garbage café gives food in exchange for plastic is one of the best initiatives and solves two problems alongside by providing food for the hungry free of cost and also reducing plastic from the environment to be recycled on time.