Plastic ban: Aarey tribals learn to make bag out of newspapers

The NGO plans on training women in other hamlets in making paper and cloth bags of different shapes and sizes. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

With the help of an NGO, tribal residents of Aarey Milk Colony have bagged an eco-friendly opportunity to make the most of the plastic ban - by making and selling paper bags. An NGO named 'I Care for Tomorrow' - which has trained them to make the bags - collects newspapers from housing societies, gives it to the Aarey residents, and once the bags are made, redistributes them in grocery stores in areas the housing societies are located in.

In March, the NGO approached the Ekdant cooperative housing society in the New MHADA colony in Goregaon east with the idea to turn their waste newspapers into eco-friendly paper bags.

Donate papers, get bags
The residents were asked to donate the newspapers to the NGO, which would then be turned into bags by the tribals, that would in turn be distributed among stores from where the residents commonly purchase groceries. The NGO also did this in order to financially support the tribal families residing in Aarey. This project is part of their 'Swanirbharta Mission' (self-dependent mission), which has begun at the Khambyachapada tribal hamlet. Ten families have been trained in the area to make paper bags.

Speaking to mid-day, Soma Dutta, chairperson of the NGO said, "We want people to be more environment friendly. The Ekdant cooperative housing society gave us 200 kg of newspapers, which we gave to the 10 families in Khambyachapada for making paper bags."

"In the last one month, the tribals have made more than 10,000 bags from 104 kg of paper. They were trained to make paper bags of two sizes- one which can handle a kilo of grocery and another that can handle three," said Azhar Khan, an executive member of the NGO.

"The bags were then given to five big grocery shops near the New MHADA and Dindoshi area at a nominal cost of Rs 40 per kg. The shops were shortlisted on the basis of where the society members do a majority of their grocery shopping," he said. The tribals get Rs 20 per kg for making the paper bags. The other Rs 20 goes in getting adhesive for the bags and transporting them.

Also Read: BMC Collects 36,000 Kg Plastic Trash In 25 Days; Bandra, Khar Top Charts

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