More than just being thoughtful Urbanians are cleaning our planet & having fun too doing so
Story of Urbania's Green Crusaders
Every fortnight one or two small three-wheelers sent by TMC come to Urbania to cart away recyclables gathered by residents and deposited overnight or morning at designated collection point. Nearly 100 families of Urbania and its vicinity now repeat this activity every 15 days and help keep recyclables from ending up in landfills. Plastics, cardboard, metal, glass, clothes, toys and books are some of the materials thus disposed off. Volunteer residents cleverly recycle empty shopping bags and empty product wrapping for collecting and sending away scrap. All of this is happening for about a year solely through a WhatsApp Group called Green Crusaders. The group has no office bearers, funding or office staff, functioning by word of mouth. It is a shining example of what a group of committed people can do. Group members keep offering ideas on reducing plastic usage and increasing it's recycling apart from issues like water to conservation. Urbania's residents are among those from Thane apartment communities involved in this recycling effort. My observation is that Urbania has rapidly become among most active Thane communities when it comes to recycling - this is evident from increasing quantity of dry waste handed over to TMC each fortnight.
Under Project Revitalization involving Thane Municipal Corporation and a NGO Samarth Bharath Vyaspeeth (SBV), dry wastes from households is collected during weekends and then recycled thus being diverted from landfills. Plastic waste is recycled into polyfuel that can be used as feedstock. Glass is recycled for being remade into glass. Electronic waste too is recycled through units that handle such waste. Cardboard is recycled into fibres for being remade into paper. SBV is also involved in recycling of floral waste typically generated from worship. It also helps in diverting garden waste from being disacrded as waste and instead is converted to compost. Ragpickers, the unsung people behind India's recycling industry are benefited in SBV's Project Revitalization by being employed in sorting and recycling of waste collected from Thane's households.
Though good number of Urbanians already segregate their waste and some offer dry waste for fortnightly recycling, there is still a long way to go in having the community become a generator of low or no waste. Rustomjee has already provided multiple Organic Waste Composters or OWC's in different buildings where wet kitchen discards are converted to manure. Such manure is now being used for gardening.
On the side, Rustomjee Green Crusader group members made a picnic by bus to Chikoo Festival in February to witness the annual celebration by chikoo growers at Gholvad by the Arabian Sea. They also had a nature trail at Urban Farm on a Sunday morning in January 2019 in which participants learned about trees at the place and information on different species. Clothes, books, toys, luggage and more are being recycled through Goonj which has a collection drive for such material once monthly - Urbania residents pool their donations and drop it off at the Hiranandani Estate collection points. Urbania now also has Gardening club where tips on home gardening are shared. The first class on basics of gardening was conducted in Mar and second one on Apr 2019. In Apr 2019, 10 volunteers also took to the streets on a Sunday morning to gather recyclable trash and managed to accumulate more than a hundred kg. Of waste which was sent for recycling on 20 Apr, 2019.
Builders make buildings and residents make communities. At Urbania the planning of the township by the builder has been complimented by civic minded residents who are taking baby steps to make it among the most green communities at Thane. Look forward to a greener and cleaner Urbania in years to come.