Bengaluru: The initiative by Beautiful Bengaluru along with Sahas, Horticulture Department and BBMP exhorting the citizens to ‘Be the change’ for clean, green and safe city during Republic Day flower show at Lalbagh has been a success, as the venue remained trash free despite a footfall of five lakh people!
The initiative has made a huge difference in reducing the trash and creating awareness among the public.
Beautiful Bengaluru Co-founder Odette Katrak told Deccan Chronicle that the petition started by her has brought a major difference in preventing empty single use water bottles littering all over the place.
The theme was ‘Litter Free – Plastic Free’. The volunteers appealed to the horticulture department to make certain arrangements to ban or stop the entry of single use water bottles at the entrance and further to make provision for adequate water for the visitors throughout the Flower Show.
Water disepensers of 20 litres capacity were installed at multiple locations to enable visitors to have easy and free access to water. This worked remarkably. In addition, water filled pet bottles were sold at just Rs 30 and the bottle was used by the visitors to refill, instead of throwing them, Odette said.
Solid Waste Management expert N.S. Ramakanth was the driving force behind the initiative whose presence and ideas motivated us to achieve zero or almost nil waste during the flower show. No polythene or NWPP bags were sold. Cloth bags priced between Rs 5 and Rs 20 were sold.
Even the small food vendors had shifted to leaf donne and toothpicks, instead of takeaways in brown paper packets.
Colour coded waste bins at multiple points made a difference as people walked up to it to throw garbage or trash. Sahas took a lead in it.
Volunteers sporting jackets with anti-litter message and BBMP’s initiative to penalise littering on the spot deterred people, Odette explained.
Beautiful Bengaluru volunteers spread awareness by interacting with visitors and encouraging them to click pictures against zero litter pledge banner. Nearly one lakh people clicked pictures or selfies promising not to litter and to influence their friends.
A large number of people acknowledged the fact that the venue was litter free to a great extent, she added.
