Plan@earth

Projects

Project ENACTOR
(Enabling and Assisting Communities to Recycle)

This is the longest running project of PlanatEarth which assists and enables communities to manage plastic
discards through the principles of – Rethink, Reduce, Recycle.

Door to door enrolment in the plastic waste management project

Stickers on houses when they
join the project

Washed and dried Milk
Pouches

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Door to door collection of clean and dry plastic discards

Card system to enter regular collection process

Transfer to storage facility

Manual sorting and grading
of plastic discards

Baled and ready for recycling

The ENACTOR project has 4 key components. – Awareness and Sensitization, Enrolment, Operations and Documentation. Through sensitization programs PlanatEarth builds capacity and aims at behavioural change by getting the members of the community getting them to do source segregation of waste and adopt principles of reduce, reuse, rethink and recycle. The next stage is enrolment of households in the project. A workforce is recruited locally and trained to carry out door to door collection of dry discards as per monthly schedules laid out. This process includes mapping out lanes and by-lanes for every ward or division of the city or town. Members of the workforce get their income through the collection of a service fee from households. Additional income is generated through the sale of recyclables in the scrap market or through forward linkages to recyclers. Every kilo of waste collected is documented. Skilled workers sort and grade plastic and other dry discards into over 25 categories thereby ensuring maximum recycling potential (MRP). Less than 8% of the waste collected from households and shops is left as the residue after recycling and this eventually goes for disposal as RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel). 

ULBs where PlanatEarth has helped implement good waste management practices include Aluva, North Paravoor, Karumaloor, Kadungaloor, Chalakudy and Edathala.

ULBs where the project is still running include Angamaly, Kodakara, Mattathur, Alagappanagar, Parakadav 

 

Project Clean My Village

CSR Funded Plastic waste management project, funded by Apollo Tyres Ltd

The Clean My Village project was implemented by Planatearth using the CSR funds of Apollo Tyres in 4 Urban Local Bodies – Kodakara, Chalakudy, Edathala and Kalamassery.  For 9 years PlanatEarth successfully ran the Clean My Village project in Kodakara which went on to become the best model of a CSR funded Waste Management project fetching awards to the Kodakara Panchayath (where it was implemented) and to Apollo Tyres Ltd. The project had elements of Awareness, Capacity Building, Community Involvement, Income Generation, Social Security for workers and behavioral change for the community. Now the project is self-sustaining and follows a Public Private Participatory (PPP) model and is due for handing over to the Urban Local Body.      

Project BSF

PlanatEarth understands the worth of other beings in managing what appears to be problems for man. One such partner of PlanatEarth is the BSF (Black Soldier Fly) and its larvae that helps PlanatEarth process food and kitchen waste. The BSF larvae thus is recognized as one of man’s new best friends. We at PlanatEarth are fully convinced that if the climate is right, BSF is the best way of managing organic waste, with very little green house emissions. But all this comes into play only after PlanatEarth has worked with target communities sensitizing them on how to reduce food wastage through responsible consumption. 

Project MARC

 

PlanatEarth has taken up the cause of Mangrove Restoration and Conservation under the project MARC. At present the project is in the advocacy stage with student leaders being roped in to understand and talk about the need to conserve mangroves. Painting competitions are organized for school children on the theme Mangrove Conservation in order to create more awareness about the need to protect this special eco-system. At the same time research is also being done on how to ensure protection of mangroves by incentivization of local communities through various schemes.

Project ReForm

Following the disaster of Brahmapuram – when the dumpsite of Kochi Corporation caught fire- PlanatEarth has launched the ReForm Project. Through this project, PlanatEarth partners with school in and around Kochi and ask school kids to bring one piece of any 4 recyclables to school to be picked up by PlanatEarth to be recycled. These 4 items include, Used Pens, Empty PET bottles, Plastic Carry Bags and Packaging Material. Since only 4 items are marked out, to keep the operation safe, this project is titled Recycle Four Objects, Reduce the Mess. The aim is to reduce the volumes of plastic that eventually might end up in landfills. 

Project Rebuild

Many people lost their homes in the floods of 2018. PlanatEarth being on the forefront of Rehab operations, was able to directly verify deserving beneficiaries and send out SOS signals. What started as a trickle of funds, soon became a massive drive that went on to rebuild 11 houses of people belonging to low-income groups. Funds were generated mostly through the Indiana Malayalee Association and the Centana Foundation with even the students and staff of Global Public School pitching in funds to help rebuild one entire house.  

Bee for Earth

Bees deserve the spot light on them as they are the most important pollinators flowed butterflies and birds. PlanatEarth recognizes the importance of bees and hence is at the stage of spreading awareness and advocacy for the need to conserve and protect these remarkable buzzers, particularly endemic species. At the same time PlanatEarth is open for partnering with corporates and using bee keeping as a win-win tool to enable the protection of the insect while generating income for deserving beneficiaries.

Project COPPER

Project COPPER (Collection of Plastic, Paper and Everything Recyclable) is a project that enables corporates and institutions to recycle their paper and plastic discards. Our clients over the years TCS, BPCL-KRL, Vodaphone, Sud Chemie, Synthite, AVT, SEPR, Kochi Metro, Sutherland

Disaster Management

It was with the floods of 2018 that affected almost the entire state of Kerala that PlanatEarth realized that there was a lot that could be done with the resources that PlanatEarth had. Members of the NGO were involved in Rescue operations while parts of the state were fully bearing the brunt of natures fury.

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As the waters receded, PlanatEarth stepped in and worked on a war footing to clear the mess of sludge and sediment and make houses livable again. Corporates like Apollo Tyres and Federal Bank funded the clean up operations. Following this, for less privileged families who had lost everything starting life from scratch seemed impossible. PlanatEarth again pitched in with Relief and Rehab initiatives in which households were given Rehab kits worth 12-15 thousand rupees funded by corporates like FCI-OEN India, Indiana Malayalee Association, Global Public School and other high net worth individuals. This Rehab project was repeated in Nilambur Floods of 2019 and Assam Floods of 2019. PlanatEarth went the extra mile to help those who had lost their means of income and with the help of corporates like SB Global Foundation managed to engage communities with income generation schemes like poultry and organic farming. Finally comes the Rebuild stage, more of which can be read under Project Rebuild. The Disaster Relief arm of PlanatEarth continued to work during the Pandemic Lockdown supplies food and medicines to those affected by the abrupt lockdown.  

Projects Successfully Completed

Flood Aftermath Clean Up- Cleaned up over 100 tons of damaged furniture, bedding, and other discards after the floods of 2018. Project was funded through the CSR Funds of Apollo Tyres Foundation and Federal Bank

Rebuild Projects – Helped reconstruct 11 houses for people who had lost their homes in the floods of 2018

Social Forestry – Through the CSR funded project of Mahindra Finance over 5000 saplings were distributed in schools throughout Kerala. But then, social forestry is something we do every year and choose to keep a low key on this.

Income Generation Projects – Many people lost their livelihood in the floods of 2018, needed to get back on their feet and through IGP projects funded by SB Global Foundation we started projects which included Organic Farming, Poultry Farming, Mushroom farming and road side eateries.