Bhubaneswar – Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), one of India’s top FMCG companies, will conduct a major plastic waste management drive at the Ratha Yatra that starts in Puri. The company will also create awareness towards responsible waste disposal during the festival. This year’s Ratha Yatra is expecting a footfall of around 20 lakh devotees. HCCB along with its partners expect to collect 10 metric tons of plastic waste at this 15-day event.
In line with its vision of a World Without Waste, HCCB will install 4 helpdesks, and 40 garbage collection bins along the Ratha Yatra route and in other parts of the city. This will help devotees dispose of plastic waste responsibly. HCCB and its partners will also deploy volunteers to manage any additional littered waste and to inform the devotees, restaurant & hotel owners etc. about the need for waste segregation and responsible waste disposal. The helpdesks and collection bins will be placed at the entrance to the festival site, the exit towards Marine Drive, Puri bus stand and railway station, the ‘Bada Danda’ road between the Jagannath Temple and Sri Gundicha temple (Cart festival site), hotels and dharmshalas.
Additionally, volunteers will reach out to residential welfare societies, marketplaces, civil society bodies and elected representatives of the local municipality to drive awareness for waste segregation, management, and transportation. Volunteers will also collaborate with theatre groups to present street plays at strategic locations and promote the message of waste management. The team will empanel local vendors, municipal workers, and citizens, who will be appointed as ‘Safai Sathis,’ to promote environmental awareness at the grassroots level.
A volunteer march will also be organized in Puri one day before the Ratha Yatra to sensitise the local community on the need for responsible plastic waste management.
Speaking about the waste management drive, Kamlesh Kumar Sharma, Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer said “In the 25th year of HCCB’s inception, we are also getting a chance to contribute to a plastic waste-free drive at the Ratha Yatra. More importantly, we get a stage to convey the message of waste segregation at the source and responsible disposal of solid waste to a large number of participants. We are pleased to associate with the organisers and the civil society in doing this work and it adds to our existing plastic waste collection drives through which we collect more than 2500 metric tons of plastic waste in Odisha every year.”
Hindustan Coca-Cola has undertaken similar activities at other major festivals and events in the past, such as the Mission Green Sabrimala in Kerala, the Godavari Pushkaralu Festival in Andhra Pradesh and so on.
The initiative ladders back to HCCB’s goal of collecting 100% plastic that the company uses. In 2021, HCCB used 113,000 MT of plastic and collected 100% of it. This was made possible through its comprehensive plastic waste collection program which works towards creating a circular economy for plastics.
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