Mumbai: Dawoodi Bohra community’s environment arm launches two-day waste paper collection, recycling drive

MUMBAI: The Dawoodi Bohra community’s environmental body, Burhani Foundation, has launched a two-day waste paper collection and recycling drive in Mumbai starting September 18.
Teams of Bohra volunteers will visit housing societies and offices to collect waste paper, files and cardboard boxes. This city-wide waste collection drive coincides with World Cleanup Day 2021 which is the largest civic action movement to engage volunteers across 180 countries.
Executive Trustee of Burhani Foundation Shabbir Najmuddin said,“We started a pilot project three months ago to identify and collect tons of waste paper lying in offices and schools.Our volunteers sorted this waste and sent it to a plant in Vapi and recycled it into envelopes and writing pads”
Najmuddin added that since the response to the pilot project was overwhelming, they have now expanded their reach through over 150 volunteers covering housing societies, school and offices across their 22 centres in the city.

The massive drive is being executed by Bohra volunteers aged 16-26 and split into groups to cover different areas in the city.
Hamza Masalawala, a volunteer, said, “The paper waste collected from different societies will be assembled at local collection points before sending it to a central location in the Al-Sa’adah complex in Bhendi Bazaar. A separate team has been deployed to sort, weigh and send the paper waste to the recycling plant.”

Insiya Maimoon, a resident of a housing society in Mumbai, said, “Paper is one of the most widely used products in our daily life. Imagine the number of trees, and the amount of water and energy saved by reducing and recycling this waste. I strongly feel there should be more such drives to create mass awareness and instill a positive behaviour change among people to waste less and lead a more sustainable life.”
In 2018, Burhani Foundation launched a global ‘Turning the Tide Against Plastic Pollution’ campaign in collaboration with the community’s philanthropic arm, Project Rise, with an objective to rid water bodies of plastic pollution and undertake local community development programmes.