KOLKATA: At the East Kolkata Wetlands, Mrinmoyee Naskar has taught dozens of women how to churn out office stationery and 'papier mache' gift items from discarded papers. On Saturday, she will travel more than 18,000km to tell the world how to turn waste into wealth.
The 23-year-old graduate who lives in a slum opposite Goltala bheri at the Ramsar site is travelling to Lima to showcase the Trash2Cash project at the Climate Change Conference. Trash2Cash features among 12 projects selected as Lighthouse Activities from across the globe by a UN team as part of the Momentum for Change initiative.
The Trash2Cash initiative evolved around four years ago when climate action group South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) was exploring solutions to Kolkata's solid waste problem. What began as an experiment to recycle waste developed into an independent community enterprise led by women who live in slums.
"The waste is segregated at source, diverting organic waste from the landfills to produce compost. Paper waste is recycled into marketable handicrafts at a workshop run by women," explained Naskar, who will travel to Lima with SAFE officials Amrita Chatterjee and Chiranjit Chatterjee and explain the project to representatives of 128 countries between December 8 and 11. Naskar is the project's team leader and looks after the enterprise, marketing, CSR promotion and training programme. Unfortunately, 45-year-old Maya Ghosh, who was a waste water fisherwoman and now heads the enterprise, cannot travel to accept the Lighthouse Activities award as she does not have a passport.
While 18 corporate houses are currently engaged in the activity, recycling 5,000 kg of waste every week, SAFE is hoping to get international support to scale up the activity. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much help forthcoming from local municipal bodies. The trip to Lima is an opportunity to reach out to the likes of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation so that they can support to mainstream Trash2Cash as an urban climate adaptive issue.
"More than 5,000 tonne municipal solid waste is generated in Kolkata daily. Dumping of this waste is polluting groundwater and emitting large amounts of methane gas, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. We have demonstrated that Trash2Cash is a solution. This community-based solid waste management business model addresses two challenges: it offers people living in slums employment opportunities and it reduces the environmental hazards of open waste dumps," said Amrita Chatterjee, who has been supervising the project since inception.
Commenting on Trash2Cash and the other 11 Lighthouse Activities, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Christiana Figueres remarked: "These activities are assisting communities, cities, businesses, governments and institutions to move towards a low-carbon, highly resilient future."
Globysn Crystals director Pawan Churiwal is delighted Trash2Cash has made it to the Lima Climate Change Conference. "Being partners in the initiative, we feel proud of the association. Not only do rag pickers now have a better livelihood, the initiative contributes to the betterment of environment," said Churiwal.
Two other Indian initiatives: 'Bhungroo' on building agricultural resilience by harvesting rainwater and community-based Flood Early-Warning System to protect people from floods using ICT solutions is among the dozen selected.
