How would it be if you see thousands of hundreds of moving dustbin across the busy and not-so-clean city like Dhaka? How will that be if some underprivileged works as a volunteer to keep the city plastic free?

Yes, Bidyanondo Foundation, a non-profit social welfare organization, came up with a unique idea that sounds almost the same.

Through their verified Facebook page Bidyanondo Foundation shared an idea named ‘Rickshaw Bin’ with a motive to save Dhaka City from non- biodegradable plastic waste.

We are polluting the city in many ways. While the question comes to usage of the dustbin we easily say, “There is no dustbin, what should we do?”

If the city corporations take initiatives to place dustbins, those get stolen overnight.

Defying all the excuses, Bidyanondo has taken the initiative. And, for that reason, they deserve to be appreciated.

A recent Facebook post of the foundation read, “In order to maintain cleanliness in Dhaka City, 6,000 garbage bins are placed at a certain distance along the sidewalks on the main roads. But within a year of installation, these bins kept disappearing.”

“Even if you don’t find a bin on the sidewalk, you will find numerous rickshaws in the streets. How about a plastic collection bin that can be placed on the back of a rickshaw?,” the statement read.

As part of the project, Bidyanondo is providing some aesthetic bins behind rickshaws in Dhaka city. People can throw plastic and paper waste in the rickshaw bin. Rickshaw pullers will be paid for depositing plastic waste.

Initially they brought 200 rickshaw pullers under the project. They held meetings with rickshaw pullers in various areas of the capital on how to collect plastic waste, where to sell it, how much money will they get et cetera.

The three wheeler driver, who can only expect slang from society, has now taken up the responsibility of cleaning the city.

In purpose to make lives a little easy with adding extra income, Bidyanondo said to the rickshaw pullers, “You’re our volunteers from today. Even as a laboring people, you can do great things, we want to see this.”

Sources said Dhaka City Corporation installed some 15,000 dustbins till now. But, 80 per cent of them have been stolen or got broken.

As a result, the plastics and other waste are clogging the drain and canals of the city which is ultimately polluting the environment and create water-logging in the city during monsoon season.

On the other hand, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is also known as the ‘City of Rickshaws.’

According to sources, there are some 10 lakh rickshaws in the capital.

As the bins under ‘Rickshaw Bin’ project will be installed on the rickshaw, they have the lower risk of getting stolen as they will be taken care of by the respective rickshawpullers.

Head of Image and Communication Salman Khan Yasin of the foundation in a media statement said, ‘We have primarily registered 200 rickshawpullers under the project.”

“We want expand the network to other areas of the country provided with the cooperation from the government or the city corporations,” he added.

Last year this Foundation took another project, “Food for Plastic ” in Saint Martin’s island under which the islanders were being provided food items like rice, lentils, eggs, even T-shirt, lungi, sandal in exchange for plastic waste materials.

Mentionable, Bidyanondo Foundation has been awarded the ‘Ekushey Padak’ this year for their contribution in social welfare.

This welfare foundation with unique innovative ideas is a blessing for socially ignored groups.

Read our previous article here