“Our aim is to educate the hawkers, paanwalas, restaurant owners and citizens at large towards the importance of segregating wet and dry garbage,” said Mudra Shirvaikar, president of ALERT. Amey Jagtap, co-founder of the Uth 2 Uth organisation said, “Because of the dearth in the number of dustbins along the roadside, people tend to litter waste around. This prompted us to take up the project.”

Given the fact that FC Road is one of the happening places in the city, a large numbers of hawkers and fast food outlets have come up, leaving the place unclean. Raunak Rane, a volunteer, pointed out, “Most of the hawkers are illiterate and they need to be well-informed about the segregation of wet and dry waste.”

With no sponsorship on hand for their campaign, it was entirely a voluntary effort by the youth participants. “Prior to the campaign, we asked the shopkeepers along the road to volunteer for the cardboard boxes that they generally keep with themselves, but in turn they charged us for it,” said Amey.

As the cardboard boxes would render useless after two or three days, the garbage will require to be disposed of. “ We have spoken to the respective ward officers of PMC, and they have readily agreed to dispose of the garbage,” said Raunak. Also, the volunteers will keep a track of the boxes and chuck it out when they become useless.