Meri LiFE, Mera Swachh Shehar campaign

Why is in news? MoHUA organises City-Recycler Connect workshop as part of Meri LiFE, Mera Swachh Shehar’ campaign

• It is launched by Union Ministry for Housing & Urban Affairs on May 15, 2023, the nationwide campaign ‘Meri LiFE, Mera Swachh Shehar’ campaign is witnessing a phenomenal nationwide uptake.
• The campaign has the principle of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, (RRR) at its core.
• It aims to nudge cities to set up one stop ‘RRR Centres’ for citizens to contribute clothes, shoes, old books, toys and used plastic to be reused or recycled.
• In line with Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) 2.0’s vision of Garbage-Free Cities and to support cities in effectively undertaking the recycling and repurposing of material and strengthen their forward linkages, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) organised a City-Recycler Connect workshop on June 01, 2023.
• The workshop brought together cities, States and agencies working in digital space, as well as recyclers and recycling associations who have a very strong network for collecting recyclables from cities.
• These agencies and associations are related to plastic, glass, rubber & tyre, and paper recycling.
• The discussions focused around enabling conditions for recyclers to work with cities and possible opportunities and roadmap for establishing forward linkages for sourcing materials from city RRR and MRF centres.
• Urban India generates about 1.45 Lakh tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), out of which nearly 35 to 40 per cent is dry waste.
• Most fractions of dry waste can be reused or recycled. For instance, studies have shown that approximately 60 per cent of the plastic waste generated is recycled in the country.
• Plastic waste is the major fraction in the dry waste. India's recycling rate is higher compared to other countries due to the age-old practice of reusing and recycling.
• However, due to limited collection channels and high transportation charges the full recycling potential of dry waste is yet to be achieved.
• Under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (SBM-U 2.0) the upscaling and recycling of discarded items is being channelised through the RRR Centres and the recyclers, to improve the recycling value chain.