Pune: SWaCH is back with ‘V Collect for Diwali Declutter’

Pune, 11th October 2021: Celebrating the city’s culture of Recycling SWaCH organised V Collect drives across the city and launched its popular Diwali Declutter initiative on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. During these two days total of 22 MT old belongings were diverted from landfills. The collection drives are planned throughout the weekends of October all over Pune to help citizens to dispose of their old belongings the right way of Reuse and Recycle.

SWaCH Pune truly honoured Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Clean India by successfully diverting 7.6 MT old clothes, 5.2 MT E-waste and 9.8 other material from landfill through SWaCH V-Collect drives organized across the city at around 60 points on 2nd and 3rd October. The response from citizens was resounding as always. Rotary Club also collaborated with SWaCH for these drives. In the preceding week, SWaCH also participated in various cleanliness initiatives with PMC for Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Harshad Barde, Director, SWaCH said, “Diwali is a time of cleaning and clearing out old belongings for every Indian household. But we cannot let these end up in our landfills and pollute our city’s environment. With an aim to divert old but reusable material from landfills and facilitate waste pickers and other urban poor communities with affordable shopping, SWaCH has been implementing V-collect for the last 11 years with PMC. The idea is to imbibe the culture of Recycling in the cultural capital of Maharashtra. In the last year’s edition of Diwali Declutter, within 15 days we successfully diverted 30 tons of old belongings from going to landfills. This material was then put to reuse and income generated was used to support waste pickers’ children in their educational needs. This year, we are going to conduct SWaCH V-Collect drives across Pune in October and on Wheels edition of the same will be carried out just a week before Diwali. We appeal to citizens to give their old belongings to SWaCH V-Collect and declutter their Diwali cleaning the right way”.
Alok Gogate, Operations Head, SWaCH said “PMC and SWaCH waste pickers have achieved 95% segregation at source in SWaCH covered areas strengthening Solid Waste Management in Pune. This has enabled Pune to successfully implement India’s leading recycling projects. As a result, 6872.6 MT waste is diverted and sent for further processing. Pune is the only city in India to take Solid Waste Management to this impressive scale. We are glad that this successful collaboration between SWaCH waste pickers and PMC was appreciated during Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav week. We look forward to exceptional citizen participation in our upcoming V Collect Diwali Declutter drives”.

SWaCH V-Collect drives will be conducted in the following areas in the month of October

16th October – Aundh, Wanawadi
17th October – Bibwewadi, Dhole Patil Road, Hadapsar, Nagar Road
23rd October – Aundh, Bhawani Peth, Shivaji Nagar, Yerwada
24th October – Bhavani Peth, Bibwewadi, Dhankavadi, Dhole Patil Road, Hadapsar, Nagar Road, Sinhagad Road, Wanawadi, Warje
30th October – Aundh
31st October – Bibwewadi, Dhankawadi, Dhole Patil Road, Kothrud, Nagar Road
Citizens can give their old clothes, toyes, books, E-waste, footwear, bags, purses, bicycles, utensils to SWaCH V-Collect. Tube lights, bulbs, Building debris, Old bathroom fixtures won’t be accepted during these collection drives.

For more information contact Mr. Harshad Barde 8888866655 , Mr. Alok Gogate 9765405481