Saturday, 11 June 2022 | PNS | New Tehri
About 20,000 used plastic bottles have been picked up from the route to Kedarnath as part of a special project which was started last month. Under the Sabka Saath Swachchh Kedarnath project, the district administration has involved another organisation for execution of the concept. As part of the project, the 65 shops and stalls on the bridle path upto Kedarnath are provided plastic bottles of water and cold drink with QR code. The people who buy these have to pay an additional Rs 10 per bottle which is refundable if they return the empty bottle to the collection centres. If they throw it along the route, the sanitation worker or whoever collects it is provided Rs 10 per bottle.
It is worth mentioning here that more than six lakh people have visited Kedarnath shrine since it was reopened to the public on May 6. The used plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable waste being left by the visitors in this ecologically sensitive region are posing a problem for the environment. The district administration had conducted an awareness campaign, despite which many visitors continued to dump plastic waste along the bridle path to Kedarnath. Ukhimath sub divisional magistrate Jitendra Verma said that the Sabka Saath Swachchh Kedarnath project was started in order to make the Kedarnath area free of plastic waste. The buyers are being refunded Rs 10 charged additionally from them, if they return the bottle. Bottle collection and refund centres have been set up to facilitate this. Anybody who collects the thrown used plastic bottles is paid Rs 10 per bottle at these collection and refund centres. Sanitation worker Ravi said that this is a good project which also enables him to earn Rs 100 extra by collecting 10 used plastic bottles while also ensuring the cleanliness of this region. According to officials, about 20,000 used plastic bottles have been collected under the initiative since the project was started last month. These are taken to Gurugram for recycling.
