Clean-Up Campaign – Recycle Plastic!

by swifttech March 27, 2022March 27, 2022

Plastic is the most commonly used product in our daily life. Let’s imagine the number of plastic that we use and throw in a year. 500 years is the number of years for this dangerous thing called plastic to decompose.

Those thrown plastic bags, garbage, chips packets, etc are ended up in the land fields, abandoned. Plastic can be recycled, and for the awareness, in collaboration with Doko Recyclers, Swift initiated a clean-up campaign for the hiking trail. A clean-up campaign is an effective platform to show communities that waste management is important.

Our goal is to develop waste management systems in hiking trails and protected areas that also fit local needs so that we are not only protecting the environment from water, plastic, and air pollution but ensuring it can utilize ecosystem services for years to come.

आहिले नगरे कहिले गर्ने ? हामीले नगरे कसले गर्ने?
Pankaj Kharel – Environmental Enthusiast

Most of the waste generated during hiking is composite plastic which consists of food packaging and water bottles that are not recycled but can be accumulated with bins so that the municipality can send it to the Sisdole landfill site. The general public is also not aware of the hazards of rising plastic pollution on our environment and health.

We conducted a clean-up hike in one of the major trails nearest to the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu. We came up with Champa Devi Hike Trail. By gathering a team of cleaning volunteers from the Doko Recyclers, Swift Technology, IME Foundation, IME Pay we could successfully raise awareness about plastic pollution in this hiking trails.

It matters for us and the generations to come.

The Doko Recyclers team led all the team to segregate and distinguished between recyclable and non-recyclable waste during the cleanup, wherein recyclable waste would be collected in white sacks and non-recyclable waste would be collected in black garbage bags. The recyclable and non-recyclable waste would then be sent to Doko Recyclers and Sisdole landfill respectively.

In order to make the effort more visible, we placed signages with the messages like ” बाटोमा फोहोर नफल्नुहोस” “बाटोहरु सफा र प्लास्टिकमुक्त राख्नुहोस्” ” हाम्रो पृथिवीलाई प्रदुषित नगर्नुहोस, हामीसंग एउटा मात्र पृथिवी छ” ” ८ अर्ब मानिसले भन्छन्, एउटा प्लास्टिकको बोतल मात्र त हो” and installed dustbins so that hikers and visitors have a place to deposit their waste.

Signages would inform hikers about proper waste management and the importance of cleaning up. We picked up all kinds of rubbish, cigarette butts, papers, bags, cans, bottles, pieces of metal, and plastic waste. All in all, we gathered a huge amount of trash, which we eventually deposited at designated locations.

During our clean-up, we heard appreciative comments from passers-by for our waste collection. One lady was so inspired that she started to pick up waste too. In addition to cleaning nature close to cities, the activity became a cheerful gathering and an amazing Team Work. We decided to repeat this action again to give our planet a little helping hand. We believe even our small efforts can have a big impact.