Junagadh's snacks-for-plastic cafe helps recycle 3k kg waste in 1.5 years - Times of India

RAJKOT: Foodies in Junagadh gorged on nearly 2,000 kg of organic snacks and beverages, but the bills they paid were in plastic money, quite literally.
The innovative 'Prakrutik Plastic Cafe' that started June 2022 collected 3,000 kg of plastic to date for which it served aloo parathas, poha, theplas, fennel juice, lemon water, etc in the last 18 months. The cafe was mooted to create awareness about recycling by serving food in lieu of plastic waste instead of money.
Locals visiting this cafe give away their household plastic and they are served juices made from fennel, lemon and betel leaves for every 500gm waste. For every one kg of plastic, they can relish plates of dhoklas, theplas, poha, and aloo parathas.
Komal Ganatra, who manages the cafe, said, "The concept of snacks-for-plastic has been enthusiastically welcomed by people. Some people even bring plastic waste from cities as far as Rajkot from their relatives' houses to our cafe."
This cafe, run by the women of Sakhi Mandal with the help of the district administration, sees 60-70 customers daily for lunch. People can also pay by cash and the cafe has earned nearly Rs 9 lakh in 18 months.
Cafe earned ₹25k by selling plastic
In the first month after starting this cafe, 164 kg of plastic waste was collected in July 2022. The collection went down to 60 kg in December 2022 and January 2023 but picked up later with the highest being 350 kg in November.
The cafe sold the plastic waste to the companies engaged in recycling the plastic waste and earned Rs 25,000 by selling 3,000 kg.
Interestingly, a local wildlife lover collected 4 kg of plastic by scouring through the forest, dam site, and Datar foothill and gave it to the cafe.
The USP of this hangout has been organic food. The cafe uses organically grown vegetables to prepare all delicacies and avoids items made from refined flour (maida). The food and juices are also served in utensils made from clay.
"We have contracts with some farmers engaged in organic farming to buy vegetables from them.
Visitors mostly bring in polythene bags, plastic bottles, jars, milk pouches etc.

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Junagadh's snacks-for-plastic cafe helps recycle 3k kg waste in 1.5 years - Times of India
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