It was a humbling and deeply satisfying day at Don Bosco Matunga to arrange for the collection of about 1,00,000 wrappers collected by the students of Don Bosco School as part of the Safai Bank of India program. The school achieved the feat in about 60 days with the bulk of collection in the post Diwali phase! For a program which was not yet six months old this was no small feat. It left us with a lot of pride and joy in partnering with the NGO Greenline who in the first place introduced the program in Don Bosco School.
Over the past fortnight we had been feeling exhilarated and overwhelmed as the news had been coming in. The first figure we received was 38,000 which itself sent our heads wobbling because the previous high figure was about 16,000 wrappers collected at Children’s Academy, Malad (E) in October. The School gave us an SOS call once the counting revealed 1,00,000 as the collection number, they were struggling with storage. The numbers show up on the website at www.safaibank.org
In the past six months we have had great response from Gurgaon as well, which was the first to respond to the program but the figures there have been 1000 or 2000 a month, nothing close to this range.
The Safai Bank of India program was launched on 16th July earlier this year and by the end of the year it is a proud moment for us that the program has moved beyond proof of concept and is now well established as one of the more innovative programs enshrining the principles of Extended Producer Responsibility and Circular Economy. The program only deals with the waste arising from multi layered packaging waste currently and we support schools, colleges and other entities to open Safai Banks in their premises. Imagine if one school can divert 1,00,000 wrappers in two months then what 100 schools collecting at the same rate can achieve?
We are proud and thankful to our partner NEPRA which runs the program called EPR Connect for multi layered packaging waste and has extended material and logistical support for collection and disposal. This collected waste will be stored at their local storage and then transported along with various other streams to their Material Recovery Facility in Ahmedabad.
Below are pictures from the landmark day! Big congratulations to all the students Of Don Bosco Matunga who participated and the dedicated teachers who facilitated! We are happy for you and proud of working with you.
We thought this was it… 
…but much more was coming! 
No Ma’am these wrappers are not going to Deonar dumping ground or littering the streets or going to the sea!! 
Yay! 
Its good to pose and have fun in between! 
The team discussing the next bigger collection on 18 and 19th December!
During this trip we collected waste from
- St. Mary’s School, Charkop (3055 items)
- Gaurishankar Kedia School, Andheri (E) (4237 items)
- Marathon Era Co-Housing Society, Lower Parel (340 items)
You can choose to divert all your MLP waste from your city dumping ground by opening a Safai Bank in your premises. Please send us an email – info(at)safaibank.org
Please consider liking our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. You can share this post on your social media and with those who wish to see a healthy and clean planet.
Your small financial contribution can help the program divert millions of MLP waste items from dumping grounds. Making an online contribution is simple. Donate here. You can use the yellow button “Pay via Payment Gateway” Please do drop us an email at info(at)safaibank.org with the details after you have made a contribution.