Residents of Koramangala Welfare Association Society in Bengaluru found a great way to reuse the flex items. Noticing large humps of dried leaves lying at various parts of Koramangala, the association came up with ‘first of its kind’ composting bags made out of flex. The composting bags have become an instant hit among Koramangala residents, and one can easily spot them across societies and parks.
Flex To Compost Bags
Padmashree Balaram, the president of Residents of Koramangala Welfare Association told The Logical Indian that they collaborated with NGO Swabhiman for their initiative. During one of the meetings, the NGO Swabhiman mentioned their concern about having large numbers of flex, which they wanted to put in good use. Flex has been banned in the state from August 6, 2018. Padmashree worrying about the growing menace of leaves strewed along the roadsides, pitched the idea of making giant compost bags of flex. The idea was welcomed by every member present in the meeting. The bag’s dimension was set to 3 feet by 2 feet to fill a hefty amount of dry leaves. The price of the bag was fixed at Rs 40 each.
“I pleaded to the members of my society to buy these bags to collect dry leaves as disposing it off to garbage trucks becomes a herculean task. Within the first week, the NGO informed us that numerous people had placed orders for compost bags. We were elated as our plan worked,” she added. To make people more aware of the compost bag and to make roads free of dried leaves, Padmashree has handed over two bags each to a few municipality sweepers to use.
As of now, more than 300 bags have been sold in just 45 days. She further mentioned that other societies too have started using composting bags by seeing their initiative.
The Backstory
Padmashree tells that composting bag was not their first idea. Seeing IPL flags littered around, post matches on roadsides not only painted an ugly picture but also posed a greater environmental hazard. “As IPL was at full swing in the last two months, most of the fans used to throw these flags on roadside rather than disposing of it in stadium dustbins,” said Padmashree.
Padmashree along with other members of the association collected around 5000 to 6000 IPL flags around Koramangala. “We were not clear on what can be done with this flag. However, we wanted to reuse them.” Padmashree later reached out to Swabhiman to help them with flags. “It is during one of the meetings where we collectively came up with the idea to make these flags turn into sling bags, which can bear 6-8 kgs of weight.”
The Logical Indian appreciates the novel steps undertaken by the Kormangala Welfare Association to make the city clean. We ask all our readers not to litter public spaces and always dispose of the rubbish in the provided dustbin. Doing so will not only help the city to look cleaner but also will ease the work of street sweepers.
