The city of Gurugram is making waves across India for their commendable effort of opening the city’s first Steel Utensil Bank. Titled as the 'Crockery Bank for Everyone', the face behind the initiative is Sameera Satija, a resident of Sector-14 in Gurugram, and an employee of the audit department for the Comptroller and Audit General of India.
The single-use plastics such as polystyrene plates, bowls, spoons, etc., are heavily used in social gatherings, community meals, also known as Bhandara, and other such events, because of their cheaper value, and single-use nature. To discourage the usage of single-use plastics, and in an attempt to create an alternative environmentally-friendly solution, Sameera, collaborated with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and started the ‘Crockey Bank for Everyone’ free of cost.
The Crockery Bank works by allowing the residents and the event organisers to utilize the steel utensils on rental-basis.
The Bank has provided a Facebook page where anyone looking for steel utensils can connect and drop a message. They can later collect the utensils as per their requirements from the bank just by confirming their identity through any of the Government-approved ID cards.
From spoons, to complete plates and bowls, the Steel Utensil Bank furnishes all kinds of utensils. What’s great is the bank is keen to scale-up its efforts in order to meet the needs of large-scale events and social gatherings at No Cost!
When asked why she doesn’t charge a fee on her initiative, Sameera said, “Because I want to motivate more and more people to use the bank where they feel that they are saving money as well as the environment. And my reason to start this free service is to reduce the usage of disposable plastic.
Within four months of its launch, I have been able to save 1,00,000 items of disposable plastic, and around nine branches have been set up in Gurugram and Delhi. The best part about this Remarkable effort is the bank is receiving added utensils from the borrowers in return. The novel initiative so far has saved around 2 lakh disposables to date.
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