MUMBAI: As a part of ITC’s initiatives to support the Prime Minister’s call for ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’, Savlon, ITC’s leading hygiene brand, introduces ‘Swachchata Ka Gullak’, a unique community initiative led by school children.  The concept of ‘Gullak’, an earthen pot symbolic of savings for a better future was identified to reiterate the fact that tremendous value can be generated from waste if segregated at source.

‘Swachchata Ka Gullak’ is being deployed in schools across Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata under ITC Savlon’s ‘Swasth India Mission’ to help school children collect and deposit dry waste. The initiative was launched with the objective of sensitising students on the need for an eco-friendly life while also becoming community advocates helping segregate waste at source into dry and wet waste. More than 1 lakh students would be participating in this initiative. The dry waste collected through this drive will be recycled.

ITC has implemented a large-scale “Wellbeing Out of Waste” (WOW) initiative, which focuses on providing an end-to-end sustainable and scalable solution for solid waste including plastic waste. The programme spans the entire value chain, right from awareness, segregation, collection to promotion, reuse and / or recycling of waste. This programme today covers over 89 lakh citizens across the country. ITC’s initiatives in waste management has enabled it to be ‘solid waste recycling positive’ for 12 consecutive years. In 2018-19, ITC collected around 16,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste including around 7400 tonnes of Low Value Plastics (LVP) comprising of Multi-Layered Plastics (MLP) and thin films.

ITC Ltd chief executive, personal care products business Sameer Satpathy said, "Transforming waste into a valuable resource is only possible if each one of us begins to actively segregate dry and wet waste. Savlon’s Swachhata Ka Gullak initiative is designed to educate school children to become environment super heroes for their schools, homes and neighbourhood. Hygiene awareness has been an intrinsic part of ITC Savlon Swasth India programme and with Swachhata ka Gullak we hope to sensitize young children for a more environment friendly future.”

Venkateshwar International School, New Delhi, principal Manisha Sharma commented, “This is an important initiative by Savlon and an excellent engagement led activity that not only educates about waste segregation but also helps inculcate a habit of waste segregation. Students of our school and many other schools in the country are contributing enormously by championing the collection drive.”