Next time you sip a juice or milkshake and toss that carton in the waste, pause for a moment! For you can do your bit to ensure that the pack doesn’t end up in a landfill. Well known NGO, Waste Warriors has recently installed a bench and a table made of recycled Tetra Pak cartons at Dehradun Zoo. The idea behind the installation of this kind of furniture is to raise awareness among consumers about the segregation of waste at source, and recycling.

Interestingly, during the installation of the furniture, a Nukkad Natak was also performed, demonstrating how following the 3 R’s “Reduce Reuse Recycle” can bring down the quantity of waste and create new useful items by recycling them.

Ankita Chamola, project manager, Outreach & Partnerships, Waste Warriors, said, “Based on our consumer research and baseline interviews conducted among waste pickers and scrap dealers, it was evident that there was no awareness among the masses about collection or recycling of used cartons. In the last few months, with the help of our collaborative efforts, we have raised awareness primarily at three levels - one with the consumers, second with the waste collectors or waste pickers, third with the govt bodies to leverage maximum support for the success of this project in Uttarakhand. When we show people the end products made from used cartons, they are amazed and excited to touch and feel something made so beautifully out of waste.”

The ongoing collaborative effort between Tetra Pak and Waste Warriors, launched in 2020 also aims at raising awareness among the waste-picker community, about the value they can derive from collecting used cartons and selling them to a recycler.

Tetra Pak cartons are primarily paper based, with over 70% of the carton being made from paperboard. The cartons can be recycled into paper products, panel boards, industrial pallets, roof sheets, school desks, seats for autorickshaws and more.