Training on Managing Plastics in Rural Areas

Date: February 7 - 10, 2023

Rural Water and Waste team has partnered with the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation(under the Ministry of Jal Shakti) to capacitate the officials working on Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) in specific areas of management of faecal sludge,greywater and plastics in the rural areas. The team in coordination with Municipal Solid waste team of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organized its first training on “Managing Plastics in Rural Areas” from 7-10^th February, 2023. The training was attended by 26 officials from the states of Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Kerala and Chhattisgarh. The training objective was to train the officials the need, ways and importance of managing plastics in rural villages.

The topics were taken up as a mix of lectures and hands-on activities where participants were involved in various group activities and were asked to prepare a village level plan post a village visit. The training sessions were undertaken by various internal and external experts.

The training was initiated by Karanjit Singh, Joint Director, Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen. Post this SushmitaSengupta, Lead Rural Water Program conducted an orientation and ice-breaking session wherein the participants expressed the challenges they faced and what are their expectations from the training. Swati Bhatia talked about the basics of solid waste management- Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. The participants were taken for a campus and laboratory visit where Sarabjit Randhawa, Director AAETI explained the green features of the campus and Arvind Senger explained various parameters used for testing of compost.

Atin Biswas, Director, Municipal Solid Waste team talked about the need to manage plastics and the state of plastics in rural areas. Siddharth Singh from MSW team explained and discussed about classification of plastics, its recycling and the role of Extended Producers Responsibility in the rural scenario. Ashish Chauhan talked about various available options and technologies required for waste collection and setting up of material resource facility and a plastic waste management unit.

AvinashYadhav Kumar, practicing lead with National Institute of Urban Management talked about the nuances of planning and setting up a plastic waste management unit wherein he discussed about aspects of clustering, site identification, formalizing the informal sector, managing timely collection of waste and transportation and monitoring the entire process.

Archana Tripathi, CEO, SAAHAS talked various institutional and funding aspects and brought forward various case studies from Karnataka. Apart from this various sessions were conducted where participants were encouraged to talk about good work done in their states with respect to plastic waste management. Sundaresan. A, Executive Engineer, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu; brought forward the detailed case study on waste auditing done in the state of Tamil Nadu and the economic model they have developed in Dindigul and Madurai for the reuse of plastic waste. Shivangi Agarwal talked about various IEC case studies across the states. Participants were taken to Ishrodha village to understand the various modalities of planning. They discussed with various stakeholders and tried to relate the technological aspects with the classroom learning.

Finally the training concluded with distribution of certificates to all the participants by Sarabjit Randhawa and getting their feedback.The participants were very positive about the training and overall arrangements in the green campus of AAETI and provided good feedback. They expect more such trainings to be organized so that regular orientation and support can help in maintaining the pace of SBMG’s objectives.