South Delhi Municipal Corporation not to serve plastic water bottles anymore

New Delhi

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided not to serve plastic water bottles to politicians, officers and guests during meetings, in a bid to save both money and the environment. Instead, water dispensers would be installed and paper cups provided.

Senior officials said about 48,000 plastic water bottles of 250 ml quantity each were purchased by the SDMC annually. This cost the corporation about Rs. 2.63 lakh each year. This money will now be saved.

“The idea was proposed by our education committee chairperson, Nandini Gupta, and we all agreed since it is in line with the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,” said SDMC Leader of House, Kamaljeet Sehrawat.

The union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) also banned all single-use plastic items from being used at its office, Paryavaran Bhavan, last year, she said.

“We used to fill up all these discarded plastic bottles in gunny bags and dump them at landfills, which caused environmental nuisance,” said SDMC Standing Committee Chairperson, Bhupender Gupta. “Plus, we noticed, that users often left behind some amount of water, leading to wastage. So we decided that water dispensers and paper cups are a better option,” he said.

Environmental expert, Swati Singh Sambyal, however, said paper cups may not be the environment-friendly alternative the civic body is looking for. “Few paper cups are recycled while a lot of them end up in landfills and drains. Plus, their rim is polystyrene foam, which is again non-recyclable; so you are essentially solving one problem but creating another,” the programme manager with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said.

SDMC operates out of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre, a 25-storey building on Minto Road, from which about 250 employees of the SDMC — including the political and executive wing — function.

They have monthly House Meetings attended by 104 ward councillors and officers, besides the fortnightly Standing Committee meeting, and various others. The bottles were served at all these occasions.

First Published:
Jul 23, 2019 21:11 IST

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