Trash to Cash ; Itc's Wealth Out of Waste (Wow) Programme Shows How a Simple Habit Change Can Significantly Benefit the Company, the Society and the Country.

Summary

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Ragpicking, one would assume, is the last area a corporate would want to foray into. But for ITC, which had in the past entered unorganised businesses such as manufacturing match sticks and incense sticks, it is a potential gold mine. Consider this: for 80 per cent of the 630 paper mills in India, waste paper is a key raw material. They import around 4.6 million tonne from Europe and the US every year at a cost of $750 million (Rs 3,750 crore). But what turns this perfectly normal business action into a colossal waste is the fact that of the 8.5 million tonne of paper consumed every year in the country, only 1.4 million tonne get recycled back to the industry. Over 7 million tonne of waste paper, almost 1.5 times of what is imported, find their way into landfills and is permanently lost.

We don't believe in at source segregation of recyclable waste. Every type of waste be it paper, metal, plastics, food and other wet contaminants is put in the same dustbin and is rendered un- recyclable. As a result, waste paper recovery level in India is a poor 14 per cent compared to 70 per cent in Europe and the US. The same can be said about other waste such as metals and plastics,'' says Jogarao Bhamidipati, Vice President, ITC, Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, and Head, Wealth out of Waste (WOW) Initiative.

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Trash to Cash ; Itc's Wealth Out of Waste (Wow) Programme Shows How a Simple Habit Change Can Significantly Benefit the Company, the Society and the Country.

ITC launched WOW in April 2007 to inculcate the habit of segregating waste and increasing the level of recycling garbage. WOW is a perfect example of ITC's triple bottom line approach of economic viability, social responsibility and environmental impact,'' says Bhamidipati. The Initiative works like this: ITC provides every household i...

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