ARE YOU REDUCING,REUSING,RECYCLING?

Every year, an estimated 11.2 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected worldwide and most of it goes to the landfills posing a serious risk to ecosystems and human health(UNEP). Quit a lot of this waste isn't treated or recycled, but one women is guiding others on how to manage, recycle and treat waste at an individual level.

Sustain and Save’s young changemaker, Ms.Vinita Lulla, recently connected with a passionate and Eco-conscious human being, Mrs. Monisha Narke, who is the Founder and CEO of RUR Greenlife Pvt. Ltd. She believes that "Sustainability is all about bringing energies together so that they would be in sync with nature and look at people, planet and profits in one space."

RUR Geenlife Pvt. Ltd. started with a volunteer programme, a decade ago; and now is a registered social enterprise. Creating Eco-conscious citizens and through them contributing to the environment is their vision. Reduce,Reuse,recycle along with Re-think, Re-Innovate and Re-design is their moto. Solid waste recycling along with Eco-education for sensitivity towards nature is the objective of their work.

Inspiration behind RUR Greenlife Pvt. Ltd

Hailing from Mumbai, Monisha Narke wanted to become an engineer while growing up, and it led her to earning an MS degree from Stanford University, USA. But deep down she always wanted to return to India and make a difference to the country.

"When I returned to Mumbai, the heaps and piles of waste all around bothered me to no end, and that's when I decided to start my green journey by tracking our waste, which took me all the way to Asia's biggest landfill in Deonar (Govandi), in Mumbai's eastern suburbs," recalls Monisha. Trekking up the shockingly huge mountain of waste proved to be an eye opener for her. 

Being a mother of two, she always felt that her children should grow up in a healthy environment with clean air and hygienic surroundings. She was always conscious of the fact that we need to leave a better planet than what we inherited. That's when her motherhood drove towards taking strong steps and finalising her resolve. By segregating and composting house hold waste at home and growing a vegetable garden out of it, she started taking baby steps towards making her household sustainable. And that's how seeds for RUR Green life were sown.

Services provided by RUR Geenlife Pvt. Ltd:

1) Eco-education: 

Mrs. Monisha believes that "You can have a best technology and best machines, but if people are not sensitive, then there will never be a positive outcome. Peoples' participation and education plays an important role in Sustainability projects." Therefore, they create awareness about best practices and educate people by conducting workshops, social media campaigns, videos , outdoor activities in schools , residential campus and offices .

2) Bio- composting:

RUR has designed a user friendly wet waste composter based on the aerobic composting process. This IGBC certified green product, is available in market as well as on various E-commerce websites in varied sizes and capacities. It is portable and light in weight and could be installed at numerous places like you very own house to a big commercial space. RUR team guides you about the installation and trains you during the first composting activity.

3) Corporate Social Responsibility: 

RUR collaborates with companies and help them facilitate CSR projects. Partnership with the companies, implementation of sustainability concepts and further conducting research, data documentation and monitoring the implemented project is the task. Kalpataru, Godrej properties and Tetra Pack India are some of the companies that RUR has worked with.

4) Extended producer responsibility (EPR): 

Partnership with manufacturers, to help them achieve EPR mandates,a policy set by government is the services provided by RUR. Ensuring recyclability of products manufactured and their sustainability is their main focus. Under this service, RUR has collaborated with Tetra Pack India and Reliance Mart, help them set up collect tetra pack cans from Mumbai and recycle the empty containers into composite sheets. The recycled product is further used for making creative garden and school benches.

RUR got recognition when they won Enviro Care award. It gave a boost and inspired the team that has change makers with varied backgrounds. It is such recognition of tangible and intangible nature that keeps one going. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us realise that when we do not respect the nature and take care of it, it could take a huge toll on human life. RUR envisions to take the research and innovation forward in 'one-time disposable waste'.

Monisha's driven by aligning her social enterprise to help achieve nine of the seventeen UN-Sustainable Development Goals, vision 2030 -- especially focusing on maximizing recycling of waste and minimize dumping into landfills.

Let us be selfish and think about future of own children and think about the kind of world we want to leave for them, let's begin and eco-crusade and empower lakhs of citizens to be eco-sensitive. Mrs. Monisha advised the people who wants to switch to a sustainable lifestyle that - " Be smart about everything you do, be small and simple."

By : Devika Thatte