New Delhi: The Income Department is thinking green. It has come up with a unique idea of using waste plastic bottles to create vertical gardens and is executing this on the walls of government buildings and guest houses of the Department across the country.
An India Revenue Service officer Rohit Mehra conceptualised this idea of using waste plastic bottles as containers for plants to simultaneously address the twin issues of recycling the waste plastic and reusing it for a positive purpose. It not only reuses plastic but also helps in the substantial reduction of surrounding pollution, apart from improving the aesthetics of the buildings. This unique idea thus addresses the concerns of plastic waste and the creation of green spaces in urban areas.
As of today, this initiative has led to the reuse of over 7 lakh waste plastic bottles and the planting of over 7 lakh plants.
So far, 900 such vertical gardens have been created in 17 Indian States and more than 50 districts of India, the Department stated today. This has led to the reuse of approximately 70 tons of single-use waste plastic which otherwise would have gone to landfills, it claimed. The cities presently covered under this initiative are Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Roorkee, Bhatinda, Sangrur, Patiala, Chandigarh, Jammu, Vadodara, Delhi, Surat and Mumbai.
Further, the largest vertical garden in the country made with waste plastic bottles has been created at the Income Tax Office, Ludhiana. It covers an area of 10,135 square feet and has also found a place in the Limca Book of Records.
The Union Minister of Finance today stated that the IT department has also amplified this initiative by collaborating with other organizations and institutions to create vertical gardens. Such gardens have been created at Schools, Colleges, Gurudwaras, Government buildings, IITs, Court-premises, Police stations, Prisons, Corporate Houses, Industrial-Houses, Hotels, Bridges and flyovers, it informed.
– global bihari bureau
The sun’s UV rays break down plastic to particles. Are these vertical gardens indoors, or exposed to sunlight? Great initiative, but for that long term concern.