Environmental activities

Plastic Free Bhadrachalam:

Plastic Free Bhadrachalam is a People’s movement launched by JD Foundation in Badrachalam.

JD foundation has initiated a plastic free Badrachalam campaign to transform the holy Bhadradri into a clean and green Bhadradri. The district administration is also taking steps in this direction and is planning to completely ban single use plastic in the district. Along with multiple awareness programs, Cloth bags and jute bags are being provided as alternatives to the shop keepers and the consumers. This, done on a large scale will become a livelihood for lot of local women.

The campaign aims to make the temple town of Badrachalam plastic free. The Intends to ensure a pleasant experience for the devotees and visitors of the temple town along with an aim of achieving a plastic free, healthy life for the locals.

The campaign started off with providing alternatives to plastic to the people. The local women groups were given a task of making cloth bags and jute bags, hence providing them an additional income source. These cloth bags have been distributed to individual households in many of the colonies of Badrachalam.

JD Foundation also plans to set up a plastic waste recycling unit and a plastic waste management system along with the support of the local municipal body.

Multiple Awareness rallies, including river cleanups have been conducted along with ITC (Indian Tobacco Company), NSS and other social organisations of the town. Public representatives, bureaucrats and the people of Badrachalam are actively taking part in these programs.

JD Foundation also organized meetings with Trade Unions and Chamber of Commerce to make them part of the movement. Many grocery stores and shops in the town have either banned using plastic or have incentivized the customers for the usage of cloth bags.

In the next 1 year, the foundation aims to make Badrachalam a plastic free Model Town that can lead by example for many other such experiments over the country.