Rice is in. Plastic is out !

For ten days starting 16 October in Mulugu district of Telangana, getting rid of plastic at your home will help you with your rations. C Narayana Reddy, the district collector of Mulugu, in order to get people to dispose off their plastic, has come up with a novel idea. The district administration will give one kg of rice for every kg of plastic they receive. 

“While we will send the plastic carrybags to the cement factories, we will sell the plastic bottles to recycling units. Mulugu is a tourist destination and we found many tourist spots littered with plastic. So over the next ten days, we want to collect all that plastic too and clear the places and also make citizens aware that single use plastic is banned,” Narayana Reddy told Filter Kaapi.

Making Mulugu Plastic-free

Mulugu is home to wildlife sanctuaries and a major part of the district is covered with forest area. The administration wants to ensure there is no littering of plastic and the pristine environment of Mulugu can be preserved. 

Also read : How Mulugu ensured high attendance in offices

The good part is that the government did not have to buy the rice or request the civil supplies department to give it gratis. Several donors including NRIs, local politicians, traders and NGOs came forward to donate rice to be given in lieu of the plastic. So far 335 quintals of rice have been collected by the district administration in addition to a grant of Rs 5 lakh from an NRI. Reddy expects that by 26 October, close to 500 quintals of plastic will be handed over at the 174 gram panchayats that have been declared as collection points.