Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to revive its ‘Wheel of Kindness’ project to donate washed and ironed old clothes to the needy and homeless people living in Odisha’s capital.
The project was launched by BMC in April 2021 but a month later it came to a halt due to the COVID pandemic.
The civic body had tied up with NGO Vikash for the purpose which still receives old clothes donated by people at Kindness Hub, a centralised unit located at Unit-4 in Madhusudan Nagar, where old clothes are washed, ironed, and stored.
Currently, around 3 lakh old clothes have piled up.
Recently BMC commissioner Vijay Kulange visited the unit to revive the project and said clothes would be collected from donors in a special bus procured for the purpose. Old clothes are received directly at the central facility and through the mobile service (bus) as well.
People who wish to donate can do the needful at BMC main office and at zonal offices. They can also give a call on mobile number 7978242201 for the collection of clothes from their doorstep.
The bus has a counter where people drop their old clothes. The bulk of old clothes collected on a given day goes for sorting. Torn or unfit clothes are segregated. After sorting, the fit garments including saree, pants, trousers, kameez, shirt, shorts and salwar, etc are sent for washing.
BMC officials said the resumption of the service will help the civic body reduce the mixing up of cloth-like waste in common municipal solid waste.
“We can’t take clothes that come in the form of waste to either micro composting centres (where wet waste is reduced to compost) or to material recovery facilities (where dry waste is segregated and processed). So, clothes have to be dumped somewhere. In order to avoid the situation, it is better to give away the old and washed clothes to the needy,” reported TOI quoting BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation) Suvendu Sahu.
Presently, the facility receives about 400 clothes daily. Around 100 clothes are given to different orphanages and old age homes daily.
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