Year 2023 was exciting and full of energy for all of us at SDC!
Let me start this story with our most interesting update for you.
We have recently collaborated with AIRBUS, a global aviation company specializing in aircraft manufacturing, to expand our coveted Plastic Bank Project and set up a Plastic Waste Management Facility in Dehradun. Our team is excited and all geared up to ground this programme in the coming weeks and months in 2024.
The year was also great in terms of our strategic collaborations. We became Knowledge Partners of the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board and Dehradun Cantonment Board. This partnership was based on our growing body of work and expertise in plastic waste management. SDC Foundation provided technical support to the State Pollution Control Board in organizing a workshop on implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Framework in Uttarakhand. Our support also extended to implementing a community outreach and awareness campaign on plastic pollution during the Char Dham Yatra 2023.
As an environmental action and advocacy group, we feel that plastic pollution is the biggest threat to our mountains and we have very little time and means to clean up this mess. However, through these small interventions and the power of partnerships, we hope to turn the tide. These initiatives strengthen our commitment to make the Himalayas plastic-free and promote responsible tourism.
Further, we conducted Roundtable Dialogues on Road Safety, State of Public Transport in Dehradun and 10 Years of the Kedarnath Tragedy. Our Knowledge Events continue to help us in staying in touch with our partners and promote open discussion on developmental issues of the State. We believe that these events offer us an important opportunity to bring diverse stakeholders together and provide a platform for driving action.
One of the key highlights of the year 2023 has been our UDAS Reports. Started in October 2022, we felt there was a link between these seemingly disconnected unfortunate events, be it landslides, flash floods, land subsidence, cloudbursts, earthquakes or road accidents.
Against the backdrop of the climate crisis and rampant unscientific development, we started producing a monthly report “Uttarakhand Disasters & Accident Synopsis” (UDAS). The key purpose with the UDAS reports is to raise awareness towards the dire need for a holistic disaster management and accident minimization policy framework in Uttarakhand.
As we continue to ramp up our work in waste management and circular economy, Team SDC has now successfully partnered with close to 100 food business outlets in Dehradun, Rishikesh, Haridwar Mussorie and Narendra Nagar for recycling their used cooking oil, which is a grave threat to environment and public health. This work is being done under the Government of India's Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) Mission and in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP).
Despite our small team and limited resources, I feel extremely proud of how far we have come and what we achieved in 2023. We thank all our donors, partners and well-wishers. Without you, all this would not be possible.
Here's to keeping the momentum going in 2024!
