This Telangana district is set to go single-use plastic-free in a unique way

Mulugu, a district in Telangana, has come up with a very interesting way to get rid of single-use plastic. It hopes to become the first district in the state to be declared free of single-use plastic. One of the unique initiatives in the state’s endeavour is the facility that allows people to exchange 1 kg plastic for 1 kg of rice.
Recently, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao announced ban on single-use plastic; the same was put into effect on October 27, 2019. The plastic-for-rice has been initiated by Mulugu’s District Collector C Narayan Reddy. The initiative started on October 16 this year, leading to a collection of a whopping almost 40000 kg of plastic!


A number of plastic collection points have been set up across Mulugu to make the exchange easier for people. People will be paid with rice weighing equivalent to the plastic deposited by them. The collected plastic would then be sent to cement manufacturing units for reuse.
Another initiative to make Telangana free of single-use plastic is free distribution of cloth bags to the locals around. You can walk to one of these facilities with new or used cloth, which will then be turned into a cloth bag by tailors, who have been hired for the purpose. Mr Reddy further commented that Mulugu will definitely succeed in its endeavour to be the first single-use plastic-free state in the state.