Circular Economy: Explore Responsibly Program - United Way India

Circular Economy: Explore Responsibly Program

Circular Economy: Explore Responsibly Program

Overview

The programs address plastic waste management, generating income for garbage collectors in the process and creating sustainable processes in the communities. The aim is to create a resilient, inclusive, sustainable, and well-equipped solid waste management system.

We work with a focus on:

  • Elimination of waste and pollution from design
  • Keeping products and materials in use as long as possible
  • Regenerating natural systems.

The Need

The evident lack of a Solid Waste Management system creates an ardent need for this intervention to enable behavioral change towards waste in the community and activate community ownership and action towards waste collection, segregation and proper disposal.

The Benefits

  • Catalyzing systematic change by:
  • Promoting local entrepreneurship and dignified livelihoods
  • Empowering communities to take environmental action and co-create solutions
  • Enabling better governance of waste management
  • Addressing policy and research gaps

Our Intervention

  • Setting up systems for door to door waste collection, segregation and processing.
  • Ensuring collection of user fees from waste generators
  • Engaging with tourists & businesses to promote responsible travel and eco-friendly business practices
  • Liaisoning and building capacity of different stakeholders like Forest Departments, Gram Panchayats and Businesses etc.
  • Creating, training and empowering communities to generate livelihood opportunities

Project Govind Wildlife Sanctuary – Explore Responsibly:

United Way India has been working in the State of Uttarakhand to enhance solid waste management system in Doni, Satta, Netwar and Gainchwan while expanding and solidifying a robust Solid Waste Management system in Sankri villages of Uttarakhand that are the Snow Leopard Conservation areas and popular trekking routes for Har ki Dun and Kedarnath.

At Sankri, to preserve the tourist spot, we are partnering with government stakeholders, community households, businesses, trek operators and travelers. The intervention would include awareness, collection, segregation and storage activities door-to-door and community level. A waste bank would be installed in Sankri to store the dry waste after collection and segregation which would be transported to our MRF (Material Recovery Facility) in Dehradun for further processing and reinjecting into the value chain. For awareness targeted at tourists and travelers, IEC materials would be installed including signages and art structures to nudge behavioral change in tourists, visitors and locals.

Beneficiaries

  • Local residents of five villages: Doni, Satta, Netwar, Gainchwan and Sankri
  • School children, via the waste education program
  • Waste workers: Informal waste workers from marginalized communities are oriented on best practices of waste collection, segregation and pre-processing stages.
  • Marginalized groups: Informal workers belonging to the marginalized sections like the waste collectors.

Impact Till Date

1370+ households in 5 Villages of Uttarakhand’s Rupin, Supin and Sankri Range

To know more, write to us at info@uwindia.org

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