Swach,the city-based organisation that was formed to advocate the cause of helping rag pickers across the city,has come up with a unique method to dispose of sanitary pads. A bag made from waste paper,specially marked for disposal of the pads,will help rag pickers avoid coming in contact with them while sorting out wastes. The bag,which will be launched on Friday at the office of the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP),is made of old newspapers and is fully biodegradable and recyclable. Lakshmi Narayan,general secretary of KKPKP,and member of the governing body of Swach,says,The idea occurred to us when we were contemplating on various products we could make using old newspapers and recycled papers. Most of the companies that manufacture pads do not suggest proper method of disposal. This would avoid any health hazard and also provide an additional means of income to the waste pickers. The bags come with a label that will help the rag pickers identify them. The bag measures 4x3 and is the shape of a small envelope and once the pad is disposed of in these bags,they would come under the category of degradable waste which make them less harmful to the environment. Yashoda Pradhan,area coordinator for Swach,says,The paper bags are nominally priced at Re. 1 per bag. We have already started selling them at a couple of PMC ward offices and also at the Swach offices. In the near future,we are planning to tie up with MNCs,the manufacturers of pads and also medical stores across the city. Rajendra Kamble,a member of Swach,says,earlier,even if the pads were wrapped in paper or plastic,the municipal wet garbage disposal trucks never allowed paper or plastic to be disposed in them. We were in a spot as we had to handle them. Now,once these bags come into use,we can directly dispose off the bags without coming in contact with them. Medical wastes generated by hospitals is far more toxic and potent than ordinary household wastes like this. We had thought of selling these bags to hospitals but decided against it,as hospital wastes need to be disposed of in a different way. These bags will only be used for the disposal of sanitary pads. In the near future,we plan to come up with larger sized bags to accommodate diapers, says Narayan.
