New Delhi:
Women sitting on the floor of a house on the outskirts of New Delhi smile and chat as they stuff brightly colored toy bears with white stuffing made from a product commonly found in trash.
The material is made from cigarette stubble, separated into fibers and cleaned and bleached after being collected from city streets, where they were discarded along with millions of others.
Recycling them into a range of products including toys and pillows is the brainchild of businessman Naman Gupta.
“We started with 10 grams (of fiber per day) and are now doing 1,000 kilograms … annually we are able to recycle millions of cigarette butts,” he told Reuters from his factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital. Told.
His workers also separate the outer layer of the butt and the tobacco, which are then turned into recycled paper and compost powder, respectively.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 267 million people, about 30 percent of India’s adult population, use tobacco, and litter urban streets where general sanitation standards are extremely low.
“(Therefore) working here also helps in keeping our environment clean,” said Poonam, who works in Gupta’s factory.
(Reporting by Sunil Kataria in New Delhi, Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by John Stonestreet)