Global Recycling Day is marked on March 18
Today is Global Recycling Day. The day assumes even more significance amid the pandemic as recycling items has taken a big hit and people are using more disposable things for safety. According to a report in news agency Reuters, "From Wuhan to New York, demand for face shields, gloves, takeaway food containers and bubble wrap for online shopping has surged. Since most of that cannot be recycled, so has the waste." Recyclers across the world are losing out, says the report. Global Recycling Day is an opportunity to spread awareness about the importance of recycling in ensuring a healthy future of our precious planet and saying "Thank You" to the Recycle Heroes. Union environment minister, Prakash Javadekar today tweeted, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover is the new Mantra"
Theme of 2021 Global Recycling Day
According to the Global Recycling Foundation, the theme for this year's Global Recycling Day is "celebrating our Recycling Heroes". This year we express gratitude to all who help in popularising recycling as a key activity in our daily lives. Swachh Survekshan, the government body that monitors cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in villages, cities and towns across India, has tweeted photos and works of a few Recycling Heroes on Twitter. Meet the Recycling Heroes:
Role of of recycling in building an environmentally stable planet
- Recycling is an important part of the circular economy
- Recycling helps protect natural resources globally
- Every year, recyclable products also known as the 'Seventh Resource' saves over 700 million tonnes in CO2 emissions and this is projected to increase to one billion tonnes by 2030, according to the globalrecyclingday.com
Global Recycling Day: The mission
The Global Recycling Foundation has set up a two-fold mission:
- "To tell world leaders that recycling is simply too important not to be a global issue"
- "To ask people across the planet to think resource, not waste, when it comes to the goods around us - until this happens, we simply won't award recycled goods the true value and repurpose they deserve"
Global Recycling Day: The India story
Every year, Swachh Survekshan holds a clean city campaign and the cleanest of them all is awarded. Indore, for the last five years, have been winning that award, and recycling has a big role to play. The Indore Municipal Corporation has been focusing on efficient waste management at source. The city has moved to six-bin segregation of waste at source or the household/commercial place level, which include separate bins for dry waste, wet waste, plastic waste, e-waste, domestic sanitary waste, and domestic hazardous waste. The aim is to make recycling, reusing and disposing off the waste faster and in a more organised way.