Diksha said that delineators are one of the primary products of eco-poles. It aids in the achievement of a circular economy, “firstly, it is locally manufactured from recycled post-consumer plastics, and secondly, it helps reduce the reliance on landfills.”

“𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞,” Diksha proudly says, as she picks up one of the delineators made up of 157,950 recycled shrinks and plastic waste from Thimphu. A total of 1,350 delineators were produced as of now, however, 200 delineators were made in one day.

She briefed that today our country could not recycle all of the plastic waste and only 20% of the waste that is generated is recycled, still, 80% remaining is disposed of in landfills due to the restrictive recycling environment enabled by several factors.

However, easy and cost-effective ways to reduce waste and wraps are one opportunity for involvement, with producing delineators paving the way towards creating a better recycling environment. “We can substitute the imports of mild steel delineators from the neighboring countries,” she said.

𝐃𝐢𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝟏.𝟓 𝐤𝐠, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝟏𝟎𝟎–𝟏𝟐𝟎 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐛𝐚𝐠𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞 (𝐇𝐃𝐏𝐄) 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞 (𝐋𝐃𝐏𝐄) 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫.

“So, to produce 1,350 delineators, they had to use approximately 2,025 kg (about 148,500 pieces) of plastic bags, reducing a great deal of waste in the country.

In the case of market demand, she shared that eco-pole, fortunately, is in high demand, with farmers being their primary target customers.

She also added that, as for the delineators, currently it is a pilot project, and if things go as planned, “we are expecting a huge number of supply orders with the support of the Minister of Work and Human Settlement (MoWHS).”

Furthermore, Diksha said that currently they are focusing on recycling as much plastic waste as possible and are exploring ways to increase their recycled products. “We intend to gene innovations from waste and wraps shortly,” she said.

There are also a good number of youths that are taking part in their company; she said, adding that every year they receive a good number of young people willing to work for their company and that they are trying as much as possible to create a space to employ them.

She said that most of the students were willing to work with them during vacation. “It is especially during the school breaks that we are flooded with requests from students wanting temporary work,” Diksha said.

Meanwhile, she said that it takes about 3 minutes to make one delineator, plus an additional 30 minutes for preparing the raw materials, including the collecting of waste, sorting, and shredding.

In the meantime, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐍𝐮 𝟑𝟓𝟎.

The number one challenge to waste management is people’s refusal to segregate the waste at the source, despite numerous awareness campaigns, she said, adding that although the problem is not as severe as it used to be, with the onset of “night collection”.

It can be noticed that a lot of people often dump both dry and wet waste into the “refuse garage truck,” this ends up creating an extra mess for the workers at the material recovery facility,” she said.

Furthermore, she said that 𝐝𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐝𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 (𝐆𝐇𝐆𝐬).

In addition, she said that the establishment of drop-off centers has limited the issues of improper disposal of waste along the streets and vastly aided in the convenience of the public; however, she added that people have resorted to dumping both dry and wet waste without segregation in the drop-off center.

“This defeats the whole purpose of establishing the drop-off centers, as they were built with the notion of receiving neatly segregated waste,” she said, adding that the drop-off center sector often gets ignored and is not preferred.

“At least career-wise, thereby making it difficult for us to find human resources who take pride in working as garbage collectors,” she said.

She mentioned that institutional barriers, as highlighted in the National Waste Management Strategy for 2019, are one of the greatest challenges they face.

However, The Greener Way is forever indebted to youths throughout the country who have taken the time to learn about waste management issues and spread awareness regarding the need for segregation at the source.

“We are impressed by the number of cleaning campaigns the youths are leading. This gives us hope for a better future with efficient and effective waste management systems in the long run.”

She also said, “We are also aware of three projects in the pipeline by young people to recycle plastic waste, and we are working very closely with them.”