A group of women in Patna are being trained to transform discarded products such as seat covers into hangers, bags, folders, and wallets which will be ultimately in your pocket.

This is an initiative made by IndiGo and Nidan to recycle the discarded products.

Sangeeta Singh head of Nidan programme said the initiative would create employment opportunities for the women artisans and street vendors and will also address the bulk of waste generation.

“Seat covers and crew uniforms are regularly replaced by the airlines, and these end up as a landfill. With this initiative, the artisans will create useful daily-use products and then the street vendors, a part of the National Association of Street Vendors of India network, will sell them, Sangeeta added.

In March at New Delhi Nidan’s executive director Arvind Singh signed the memorandum of understanding with IndiGo’s director for corporate social responsibility, Raju Sharma. Training for the recycling programme has been started in Patna from 27^th May (Saturday). Nidan have hired an expert who will provide 67 days’ training to women.

The aeroplane crew is putting the waste generated from flights in baskets at the airline’s airport kiosks. After collection, the waste is being transported to Delhi from where Nidan is collecting it.

We have made two centres – one in Delhi and another in Patna, where the artisans will recycle the products. The carpets are being transformed as a foot mats in Delhi, and the rest, including plane seat covers and crew uniforms, are being sent to Patna.

IndiGo will hand over the discarded products to Nidan monthly. “Right now, we have no idea about how much waste is generated by the aeroplane. To start the programme, IndiGo has handed 400 cover seats and 80 carpets, but soon they will hand over all the waste material every month. Our ultimate plan is to recycle all of it as useful products and market it through the Swachhdhara programme (a waste management programme of Nidan). The artisans will receive a fixed wage,” added Sangeeta as per media reports.

The end products are expected to be sold from the end of next month.

  IndiGo