ITC Limited :: Newsroom :: Media Releases

Building on the success of the inaugural 'National Recycling Day' ITC's Wealth out of Waste Initiative in association with the Ramky Group is geared up to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of this global landmark. The celebrations to commemorate this unique day dedicated to recycling will comprise of a series of awareness programmes, competitions and road-shows across the city of Hyderabad, culminating in a special ceremony at the Ravindra Bharati Auditorium, on the 1st July of 2011, to be graced by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh as the Chief Guest, where a campaign to nurture 100,000 trees will be flagged off.

Recycling today, is clearly one of the most important and viable ways to combat the challenges of resource depletion. At least 30% of the net MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) is recyclable. Reducing inert materials, the net MSW could be 373 million MT per annum and at a conservative recovery level of 15% at all India level 56 million MT of recyclables like paper, plastics, metal, cloth, wood and glass can be recovered per annum through source segregation. Source Segregation of recyclables reduces the load on natural resources, provide cost effective raw material to industry, improve health and hygiene and provide clean and green surroundings.

As a responsible corporate entity, committed to positive environmental action, ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, initiated a recycling programme - WOW or 'Wealth Out of Waste' - a project that aims to inculcate the habit of recycling among school children, housewives, corporate employees and the general public as well as industries and business enterprises and reduce at least 15-25% of the garbage load through source segregation. The WOW programme is today operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Bhadrachalam, Coimbatore & Madurai. Over 3 million citizens, 500,000 school children, 350 corporates, 1000 commercial establishments and about 200 industries support WOW.

Based on the reach and impact achieved by WOW, ITC pioneered the first ever National Recycling Day on the 1st of July 2010. Over 15,000 school children participated in the programme and pledged to conserve the earth's precious natural resources through recycling.

This year as a part of the Anniversary celebrations, over 2 million citizens from across the city of Hyderabad, 350,000 school children from 1200 schools, 5,000 corporate executives, 30,000 National Green Cadet Corps (NGCC) and several commercial establishments will be participating in several programmes. These include environmental quiz contests, painting competitions, recyclables collection campaigns, road shows and slogan contests which have commenced from the 10th of June, 2011 onwards. A Cyclothon will be organised in association with CNN IBN on the 24th of July which will be attended by over 600 children and by eminent personalities from the worlds of sport and cinema.

One of the highlights of the celebrations will be the launch of a campaign to nurture 100,000 trees by recycling 5000MT of paper across Hyderabad city and approaching citizens, students, corporates, business establishments to donate recyclables. In addition, for every KG of recyclables donated ITC will apportion Rs 5/- and the funds collected thereby, will be used for providing stationery kits to 25000 underprivileged children studying in Government-aided schools. The programme on the 1st of July 2011 at the Hari Hara Kala Bhavan will be attended by several eminent dignitaries including Mr S Vijayarama Raju, Hon'ble Minister for Forest, Environment, Science and Technology, Mr M Maheedhar Reddy, Hon'ble Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development and Dr S Sailajanath, Hon'ble Minister for Primary Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh among others. More than 1500 school children will participate in the programme.

The Grand Finale of the campaign will be held on the 3rd of August, 2011 at the Lal Bahadur Stadium with the Hon'able Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Sri. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy as the Chief Guest, along with several other ministers from the state as well as the centre. The event will also witness the participation of over 30,000 school children, 2000 corporate senior executives, Govt. officials, environmentalists, NGOs and other dignitaries from across the society.

The National Green Corps (NGC) have also officially announced the 1st of July as National Recycling Day and are joint sponsors for the programmes on the 1st of July and on the 3rd of August respectively.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr P V Dhobale, Executive Director, ITC Limited said, "ITC in association with the Ramky group wishes to spread the WOW programme across the country over the next ten years, which on successful implementation could result in providing enough raw material for the domestic paper industry, by increasing the recovery levels, saving scarce foreign exchange, and in the process making India clean and green, by reducing the load on landfills".

The event will be marked by enlightened discussions on the importance and value of Recycling, with the aspiration to inspire and involve the nation in a consolidated effort to preserve our precious natural resources and understand the worth of waste regeneration.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Chairman of the Ramky Group of Companies said, "Ramky is a pioneer in waste management, and is now in the forefront of fighting and neutralising environmental hazards, whether Industrial, bio-medical or Municipal Solid Waste. We want to share our experiences with everyone on how all of us together can effect a huge change in the environment. The first thing we're out to change is the way all waste, dry and wet is thrown together, which makes it unrecyclable. Here's where we like to propagate the idea of source segregation, if dry and wet wastes are segregated at source, we can recycle most of it, leaving very little to actually 'waste'. We've partnered with ITC in propagating the idea of source segregation under our Wealth out of Waste (WOW) national recycling project jointly carried out by ITC and Ramky."