•An employee driven CSR initiative of I Am Kolkata, Merlin Group to contribute to the conservation of the mother earth
• Shri Saket Mohta , founder of I Am Kolkata and MD, Merlin handed over 800 old clothes to Shri Debashis Sen, IAS, Chairman, WBHIDCO and NKDA at the zero Waste shop
• The clothes will be washed and recycled into usable products by the Zero Waste Shop and SHG group women of Kolkata society for the cultural heritage.
Kolkata, April 22, 2021: Ever thought of How much water is wasted into making one t-shirt or how much space in the landfill the clothes take up when thrown away!!! Ever thought of all the pressure that puts on the Earth’s virgin resources by generating carbon footprints in production of the new clothes!!! If not, take 5 minutes off today, pause and think how you can save our Mother Earth by recycling your unwanted clothes!!!
Taking cue from this thought, I Am Kolkata, the CSR arm of Merlin Group has presented old clothes to Zero Waste Shop to mark the World Earth day today.
At a formal occasion, Shri Saket Mohta, founder of “I Am Kolkata” and MD of Merlin Group has donated over 800 clothes to Shri Debashis Sen, IAS, former additional Chief Secretary, Govt of West Bengal and Chairman of WBHIDCO, NKDA and New Town Kolkata Green Smart City Corporation Ltd (NKGSCCL) in presence of Animesh Bhattacharya, CEO , NKDA and Sourav Mukherjee, President of Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage at the Zero Waste Shop.
Commenting on the initiative Shri Debashis Sen, said, “After collecting old clothes at this Zero Shop, we disinfect them and put them up for display in various places in Newtown, encouraging people to reuse these clothes. Today, on the occasion of World Earth Day, Merlin The group has come and stood beside us. Every one of their employees donated their unused clothes to Zero Shop today. I applaud the initiative taken by I AM Kolkata from Merlin.”
Shri Saket Mohta, founder, “I Am Kolkata” and MD , Merlin Group said,“ We at the Merlin Group launched an Employee driven donation initiative few weeks ago and resolved to donate these old clothes which are in washed condition also. However after meeting Hon’ble chairman of HIDCO, we decided to donate the clothes with a noble purpose of saving our Planet Earth by recycling our unwanted clothes. The end products of Our waste management project launched in AA Block in New Town in collaboration with Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage also are displayed at the Zero Shop, an initiative of NKDA and HIDCO under the leadership of Shri Debashis Sen. We hope our donated clothes can be recycled into reusable products by the Self Help group women of Kolkata Society For Cultural Heritage and this way they can earn their livelihood as well. Personally I feel that we all should purge our closets and donate those to the Zero Waste Shop for saving the earth from increasing carbon footprints.”
I Am Kolkata from Merlin associated with Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage to implement the project on Waste Management before the Covid 19 struck Kolkata in March 2019 at the AA Block, New Town. Under this project, 18 SHG group women started collecting solid dry waste materials from over 100 families residing in AA block. These SHG groups underwent training by KSCH to upcycle and recycle these waste products into reusable products. Some products are already displayed at the Zero Shop. This initiative has been helping these SHG groups in earning their livelihood as well as it is reducing the amount of solid waste from filling the landfill in Kolkata. We believe that recycling solid waste products can be a tool to generate income for the underprivileged people of the society.
Though Covid 19 has prevented us from carrying our project in full swing – we have so far collected 190 kgs of solid waste and provided livelihood opportunity to 18 SHG women from 3 districts. We are planning to hold an exhibition at Acropolis Mall and display the reusable products designed by the SHG groups who undertook the training from KSCH.
Also by doing this project primarily we are addressing four Sustainable Development Goals adopted by United Nations to provide a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. They are; GOAL 1: No Poverty, GOAL 5: Gender Equality, GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal. Hence, UN allowed us to promote their SDG mission for this program by obeying their mentioned guidelines.