Ragpickers in Mumbai and Delhi are working for a new cause. They are helping Tetrapak India sort out used tetrapak covers to be recycled into fibre meant for paper mills.
The multinational company has been benefiting from this association with rag pickers in Mumbai since 2004. Now, they have begun training rag pickers in Delhi.
According to Harit Recyclers' Association in Delhi, which works with ragpickers, about 600 of them have been trained to segregate tetrapaks and deliver them to godowns, from where they are taken to Khanna Paper Mill in Amritsar. They have delivered about 2 tonnes of tetrapak garbage so far and are paid Rs 4.5 a kg.
The ragpickers are enthusiastic about the project since they are paid the market rate without the involvement of middlemen.
Amitdeep Singh, environment director of Tetrapak India, says he started by tying up with ragpickers indirectly through an NGO in Mumbai, Sthree Mukthi Sangathan, which was involved in household waste segregation.
With its help, the company was able to get ragpickers trained to identify tetrapaks from the garbage they collected.
These cartons were then sold to a papermill, which was more than happy to get fibre locally. Paper mills in the country usually have to import fibre but thanks to Tetrapak's system, they could now get good quality
fibre delivered at their doorstep for half the charge.
Tetrapak introduced the system in Delhi in January this year. It got in touch with Development Links Foundation,