Dehradun, Brand audits by Social Development for Communities a.k.a. SDC Foundation in Dehradun is being carried out to focus on making companies responsible for ‘their’ waste as per the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016.
Dehradun based SDC Foundation has undertaken the initiative to conduct a series of brand audits in the city. The objective of the brand audit is to collect plastic waste and identify the major plastic polluting corporate brands. The Foundation has pledged to conduct a series of such brand audits throughout the year.
The campaign was kick-started on Monday near Aashirward Enclave and Vasant Vihar in Dehradun. The first brand audit by SDC Foundation was conducted along with two other organizations; Tabdeel and Vikalp. Students from UPES also participated in the program. Plastic waste was collected from the entire area, categorised brand wise and audited.
“The plastic waste collected during the brand audit has been categorised into three categories; branded waste, non-branded waste and non-woven plastic bags“, said Anoop Nautiyal, Founder, SDC Foundation. During the audit, 27 Kgs of non-branded plastic waste collected, which belonged to no specific brand. Other categories of plastic waste included the branded plastic waste which weighed around 8.5 kgs. 4.7 kgs of non-woven plastic bags were collected which are being sold in the market as an alternative to cloth bags, Anoop Nautiyal added. The SDC Foundation will continue to execute such brand audits throughout the year with the objective to sensitise people about single-use plastic waste and hold the companies accountable for the plastic waste being used in their packaging processes.
“Brands like Sunfeast, Lays, Kurkure, Uncle Chips, Haldiram’s, O Yes, Tata Salt, Cadbury and others emerged as major plastic polluters“, informed Rishabh Shrivastava from SDC Foundation. He also said that the audit clearly highlights the blatant violation of plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 by the companies. He added, “that companies shall act and implement the legal doctrine of extended producer responsibility (EPR) in order to create plastic free cities and towns.”
Along with Anoop Nautiyal and Rishabh Shrivastava from SDC Foundation, senior members like Subhash Silawat, Dr. L.M.S Upreti, Tarun Goyal from Vikalp, Udit Raj Sharma from Tabdeel, Pyare Lal, Praveen Upreti, Gautam Kumar and Aadarsh were also present during the audit.
