The one thing that this pandemic has taught us dearly is the importance of hygiene and cleanliness in our daily lives. Regardless of how gruesome this pandemic has proven to be for us, it sure was a golden egg for the soap industry. However, this golden era for the industries is proving to be an unanticipated nightmare for the environment, the reason being and increase in the use of single-use plastic in the packaging of hand wash and sanitizer bottles.
According to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, it is estimated that India produces 3.3 trillion grams of plastic every year, with just seven states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh — generating two-thirds of the country’s plastic waste.
Keeping up to its motto of ‘Social Entrepreneurship in Action’, Enactus Kalindi, under its Project Rehmat, came up with a unique initiative called Swatchch Refill Drive. Under the refill drive, we aim to reduce the increased plastic consumption by urging people to get bottles from their homes that we ‘refill’ with our organic Swatchch hand wash. We set up booths in residential areas where residents come and purchase the hand wash, which is manufactured by our skilled women entrepreneurs at a minimal cost. Three refill drives have been successfully conducted in Delhi so far and we have also expanded it to a pan-India level with Lucknow being the first destination of the caravan.
On an ending note, we at Enactus Kalindi are committed to undertake more such initiatives in future to fulfil the responsibilities towards our brethren, as we believe that humanity has its own obligations.