An Andhra youth has come up with an interesting way to rid his town of plastic. He decided to compensate all those people who collect and bring plastic waste with an equivalent quantity of rice.

Rice being the staple food of Andhra Pradesh, the ‘Rice for Plastic’ initiative is turning out to be a big success as people from all over the place started pouring in with plastic to get rice in exchange.

A Novel Idea

Naresh Peddireddi, a young cashew nut trader came up with this rice-for-plastic idea. Many youths belonging to a non-governmental organization, ‘Mana Peddapuram’ in East Godavari district gave wings to this idea and it became a reality. They named the drive ‘Avoid Plastic-Avoid Hunger’ and it garnered a huge response from the masses. Whoever brought plastic material preferably single-use plastic, were provided with rice in kilograms equivalent to the weight of plastic they brought.

Eradication Of Plastic

The plastic thus collected is sent to the municipality which employs people to segregate and recycle it. The municipality can also utilize the plastic for the construction of roads. Rice which costs Rs 30 per kg is sourced from nearby mills that have agreed to contribute to their cause. On the first day itself, the NGO was able to collect 200 kg of plastic and the same amount of rice was given to the people.

People of Peddapuram are very enthusiastic about this project which seems to be gaining momentum as the place has become free from plastic and poor people are able to get their staple food.