International Day of Zero Waste: Centre to organize rally to raise awareness about garbage free cities

New Delhi: With an aims to promote sustainable consumption and raise awareness about zero-waste initiatives, The Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs is organizing “Swachhotsav- International Day of Zero Waste: Rally for Garbage Free Cities” in New Delhi tomorrow.

In the presence of Singh Puri, Hon’ble Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Mr. Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Co-ordinator, over 350 delegates are expected to attend this event.

The theme of International Day of Zero Waste 2023 is – ‘Achieving sustainable and environmentally sound practices of minimizing and managing waste”

The International Day of Zero Waste aims to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns and raise awareness about how zero-waste initiatives contribute to the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The United Nations General Assembly on 14 December 2022 formally recognized the importance of zero-waste initiatives and proclaimed 30 March as the International Day of Zero Waste, to be observed annually beginning in 2023.

According to UN, Humanity generates an estimated 2.24 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, of which only 55 per cent is managed in controlled facilities.

By 2050, this could rise to 3.88 billion tons per year. The waste sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in urban settings and biodiversity loss.

Around 931 million tons of food is wasted each year, and up to 37 million tons of plastic waste is expected to enter the ocean annually by 2040.

Swachhotsav – International Day of Zero Waste: Rally for Garbage Free Cities will see discussions and best practices presentations on Circularity in Garbage Free Cities, Women and Youth for GFC, Business and Tech for GFC and Fireside chat with Mayors.

The event will be organized by MoHUA in collaboration with GIZ, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, UNEP.

To focus on sanitation coverage and initiatives, the Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October, 2014 as the world’s largest behavioural change programme in sanitation.

The movement was bolstered with the vision of ‘Garbage Free Cities’ aiming at scientific solid waste management by the SBM- Urban 2.0 launched by the Prime Minister on 1 October, 2021.

 The concept of ‘Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) was introduced by PM at COP26 in Glasgow on 1st November, 2021, in line with UNEP’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Recently the Prime Minister had called upon the global community of individuals and institutions to drive LiFE as an international mass movement towards “mindful and deliberate utilisation, instead of mindless and destructive consumption” to protect and preserve the environment