I C Naik
Several cooperative housing cooperative societies in Mumbai are these days busy fulfilling the Cooperative Principle-concern for community. These cooperative societies spread in the areas of Mahim, Juhu, Bandra, Matunga and Colaba are involved in Recycling Tetra Packs into a garden bench.
Providing a good example of recycling more than 2,000 Tetra Pak cartons in nine months the residents of Artek Apartments in Bandra can boast of a sound Green Initiative and proud owners of a unique garden bench.
Concern for Community is one of the important Cooperative Principles as postulated by the International Cooperative Community. Reading as under: ”7. Concern for Community it says – while focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of communities through policies and programs accepted by the members’. One important community issue is “Green Initiative”
Over the past few months these housing societies have taken up the responsibility to segregate cartons for recycling, with the assistance of a convenient collection chain set up through the combined efforts of RUR (Reducing, Reusing, Recycling), a non-government organization, Tetra Pak and Sahakari Bhandar retail chain.
They put a recycling bin in the society on a trial basis. Most of the children had the recycling program going on at school, so they were excited to do it at home and encouraged their parents.
Actually this initiative began something like four years ago and more than six lakh cartons have been recycled already. Several schools are involved in this program along with a few corporate.
Tetra Pak joined hands with Deluxe Recycling India, one of the few carton recyclers in the city, for this program. The cartons are reproduced into sheets at their unit in Palghar. The process is like this. Cartons are shred into pulp, and compressed using heat and then cooled to form a material stronger than plastic and comparable to wood. It is used to make roof sheds, auto seats, doors and other such products. One Jignesh Shah runs this unit.
The scheme offers a recycled school desk for 4,500 cartons collected by a registered school. Housing societies can get a desk from 2,000 cartons. About a hundred desks have been donated by registered schools to those that require them.
“The tremendous space constraint in Mumbai is visible in the overflowing dumping grounds and this makes it extremely important to segregate waste, to recycle what we can. Children are more conscious of the environment and are educating their families about this,” reportedly said Monisha Narke, who works with RUR.
Cooperative housing societies in other areas should follow the suit and demonstrate implementation of 7th of the principle of cooperatives for a worthy cause.