The Uttar Pradesh government will set up RRR centres in 11 municipal corporations. The RRR – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – centres are part of the ‘Meri Life, Mera Swachh Shahar' campaign.
In these facilities, being hailed as ‘Na Throw-Na Throw’ (a pun on Natu Natu song), waste materials such as clothes, books, toys, electrical and electronic equipment and machinery, among others, will be collected from the homes of people and distributed to people in need.
The municipal corporations where these RRR centres would come up include Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Meerut, Agra, Ghaziabad, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur.
According to Urban Development Minister AK Sharma, a ‘Na Throw-Na Throw’ chariot will be run in all the selected 11 municipal corporations.
Neha Sharma, the state Mission Director of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), said these chariots would collect the items.
Besides, the RRR centres will be developed as banks for clothes, books, utensils, and toys. The municipal corporations will operate them through various voluntary organisations, self-help groups and other organisations.
“The campaign will run from May 20 to June 5. RRR is a one-stop solution for depositing items deemed unusable or inappropriate for citizens, institutions, commercial enterprises, etc. Once collected, these items will be handed over to various stakeholders to be refurbished for reuse or converted into new products,” Neha Sharma added.
She also asserted that the collection and distribution of items would be organised through volunteers at the centres. Authorities will also recycle the waste generated from the preparation of ODOP products, Sharma said.
Meanwhile, a cow dung bank will be started in Kanha Upvan in Lucknow, wherein cow dung will be collected from the surrounding areas and eco-friendly products will be prepared from it.
Similarly, a kernel bank will be set up in Lucknow Municipal Corporation, wherein fruit kernels will be collected. These will be installed on the legacy waste sites that have been cleaned in the urban bodies of the state.