PMC feted at zero waste cities conference in The Philippines

A press statement issued by SWaCH cooperative said they informed that PMC is building solutions with waste pickers like composting and modular biogas to manage wet waste at source. The effort is contributing at the city scale to divert landfilling of organic waste which is the third largest source of methane emission. Along with this, PMC is working with waste pickers to establish innovative systems especially to manage difficult-to-recycle plastics like Multilayered Plastic, Sanitary Waste and Thermocol. These inclusive, sustainable and just waste management systems are a guiding light for other cities and their administrations across the world.

Lubna Anantakrishnan, Managing Trustee, Kashtakari Panchayat, said “On behalf of waste pickers from Pune, I would like to say very strongly that we are with you, we are partners in Zero Waste, and we are partners in the movement against plastic. We want to work towards turning off the tap. We are part of the solution but we need to be part of it. Don’t leave us out. Zero Waste without waste pickers is garbage.”

Dr Ketaki Ghatge, Assistant Medical Officer, Department of Solid Waste Management, Pune Municipal Corporation, said “Informal waste pickers are not weak at all. They might be poor but they are innovative and resilient. So we should empower them, not disenfranchise them. We shouldn’t exclude them but we should integrate them as Pune has. We should not replace them but we need to upgrade them.”

Along with nearly 40 other cities, Pune too took the Global Methane Pledge. It would support presenting these zero-waste models built by these Asian cities which are based on waste segregation, at-source wet waste management and waste picker-led material recovery, in front of the world. The successful zero waste strategy designed by Pune Municipal Corporation and SWaCH waste pickers would be recognised as an ideal working model to implement better waste management systems in other cities.