18 organizations deeply concerned about the Himalayan waste crisis met in Buddha Pada, Kalimpong as part of the Zero Waste Himalaya platform with the objective to strengthen and build the zero waste movement in the Himalaya. The workshop was supported by GAIA Asia Pacific, an organisation working with the objective to move away from the current linear and extractive economy and towards a circular system that supports people’s right to a safe and healthy environment.
In the 2 day’s discussion, participants discussed the challenges of managing waste in the mountain states. The findings of The Himalayan Cleanup campaign were also shared which revealed that 70% of the plastic cleaned up is non-recyclable with no solutions and no market value thus seen all across the Himalaya. The food and waste intersection is stark and frightening as more than 80% of the plastic comes from single use food and beverage plastic packaging of which over 80% is non-recyclable. The Himalayan waste crisis was understood to be a production issue and the need for systemic changes as well as individual lifestyle changes was highlighted.
The organisations taking part in the workshop were Waste Warriors (UK/ HP), Little Green World (Ladakh), AMYAA (Arunachal Pradesh) Youth NET (Nagaland), Sambhavna, Deer Park Institute (Himachal Pradesh), Green Circle, WWF India, ECOSS, KCC (Sikkim), TIEEDI, Anugyalaya, WWF India, DLR Prerna (Darjeeling), Budhha Pada, SaveTheHills (Kalimpong) Rural Development Department (Sikkim), Integrated Mountain Initiative and Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (Bhutan)
The workshop had the presence of the Regional Coordinator of GAIA Asia Pacific – Froilan Grate, who provided deep insights into the global waste crisis and the work of GAIA to address the issue. He threw light on the crisis of narratives that blamed Asian countries for the plastic problem when the source of the plastics were in developed nations. He also highlighted the link between the waste crisis and the climate crisis, mentioning that 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions are embedded in the life-cycle of all products.
Break Free From Plastic’s Aswathy Senan presented on the BFFP’s structure and activities to provide insights to the Zero Waste Himalaya platform. Mr. Shibu K Nair, GAIA’s Regional Coordinator on Organics presented on the concept of zero waste and zero waste cities, sharing some of the path breaking work that had happened in other countries, and states like Kerala and Maharashtra that looked at decentralised solutions, policy interventions, and integration of waste workers and waste pickers.
Waste Warriors presented their experiences of working in Dharamshala and Corbett Tiger Reserve in coordination with the Government and the elected local bodies. A short presentation was also made by North East Waste Collective from Arunachal Pradesh. Both highlighted the challenges of covering operational costs in the Himalayan geography.
All organisations called on the need to have mountains at the centre with policies, practices and resource allocation that is mountain sensitive and acknowledging the sacredness, fragility and socio-ecological importance of the Himalaya. The focus on real solutions to the waste crisis and highlighted false solutions like waste to energy, burning waste, plastic roads and bottle bricks that shift the problem and not solve it, was central to the workshop.
Zero waste principles and practices were discussed as real solutions that systematically solve the problem while providing livelihoods. Ensuring no biodegradables reach the landfill through composting, biomethanation and animal feed are equally climate change mitigation actions. The house was unanimous in calling for producer responsibility for the plastic waste that is strewn across the Himalaya especially with the insights of 6 years of the Himalayan Cleanup waste and brand audit data that consistently shows more than 90% waste cleaned is plastic waste.
The workshop ended with a vision and strategy for the Zero Waste Himalaya platform for the next 5 years to foreground the issue of waste in the Himalaya as a crisis and needed special dispensation for redress.
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