In this pandemic this young Pune Plogger – Vivek Gurav is promoting the use of Eco-bricks to stop 2000 tonnes of plastic waste going to landfills. Household waste, especially plastic packing of kitchen stuff and other discards, dumped or mixed with usual waste, accidentally or otherwise, will make their way to landfills and in turn to oceans.
Imagine the intensity of impact this has on life on land and underwater. When we have been seeing reports which are stating facts about how microplastics are impacting humans and the way they have eventually entered our food chain, it brings us back to the question, why is the root cause not being looked upon?
Well, here we have an Eco-warrior from Pune who has been fixing this problem at the source. This Pune based techie Vivek Gaurav who is known as the ‘Plog Man of Pune’, has come up with a simple idea to solve the household plastic waste problem.
Vivek has started a campaign during this pandemic to mobilize the citizens locked inside their homes, to make use of their leisure by segregating waste and sort plastic out of it. The plastic will further then be used by the team of Pune Ploggers to make ‘eco-bricks’ which is an amazing idea to start segregating waste and try repurposing plastic for some other cause.
A visualistic initiative by Pune Ploggers – ‘Eco-Bricks’ – are plastic bottles stuffed with plastic covers and material of plastic to set the volume and strength to utilize them as usual clay bricks in construction. Daily use gadgets, garden areas, furniture, art installations, planters, and much more can be built and fabricated using these eco-friendly bricks.
When asked about the future recycling of plastic of these bricks, Vivek says, “We have modified the purpose and overall design of eco-bricks by innovating an interlocking mechanism to avoid the use of cement or any other bonding material in these crafting that might render all the plastic unworthy of future recycling”.
These Eco-bricks will be used for multiple purposes. When asked about these applications, Khushboo Duggad, an architect by profession who is working on making these bricks sustainable in terms of strength and durability. She has been specifically looking after making the eco-bricks multi-purpose.
She is training over 500 participants in this initiative and the target to make ‘One Lakh Eco-Bricks’ is a measurable goal the team has set. Speaking with Pune Mirror recently, Vivek says that Even Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Banglore citizens have started making eco-bricks and Pune Ploggers has a mission to collect one lakh eco-bricks till December 2020. Vivek also, adds that this initiative will prevent 90,000 tonnes of plastic going into landfills.
Vivek has been known for his recent achievement of cleaning 100 Tonnes of Plastic from streets of cities like Pune, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Kolhapur & Nashik through his initiative ‘Pune Ploggers’. His initiative ‘Pune Ploggers’ has got a special mention by ‘Mann Ki Baat’ as well and the work he has been doing definitely shows how community-led action is a way towards sustainability.
The overall concept was initiated when Vivek and his team of Pune Ploggers couldn’t continue their plogging drives due to ongoing pandemic lockdown and they tried to address the plastic issue in a very positive way.