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‘Abortani’ is a Bengali word which signifies something that arrives cyclically. Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage (KSCH), a Non-Govern-mental Organisation (NGO), has chosen ‘Abortani’ as the name for their project that deals with waste-recycling and management.

Last year, KSCH started this project to create rural livelihood by producing different artefacts by using solid waste products. The NGO works with numerous handicrafts based projects all over West Bengal.

The organisation is working with the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHICO) that is in charge of the development of New Town – a planned satellite township on the eastern fringes of Kolkata. Presently, they have been given the opportunity to present their recycled artefacts in Eco Park in New Town as part of their tie-up with WBHIDCO. New Town is a gold-rated green city. It is now eyeing a platinum tag by the Green Building Council and has launched several initiatives in waste management and waste recycling. Promoting organisations that encourage waste recycling is also an important agenda of this newly planned township. 

Debashis Sen, Chairman, WBHIDCO, informed BE, “New Town is a green city, but presently it’s rated as a gold city. The city is now eyeing for the platinum rating. Developing an environment friendly waste disposal system is one of the ways to achieve this and we are trying to target a zero waste system. One way is to segregate waste at source and the other way is to recycle them. We are following both. We are also enthusing people to buy used clothes as it’s quite hard to recycle cotton.”

Arpita Lahiri Mukherjee, Founder, KSCH, told BE, “We have items that are made by recycling newspaper waste, clothes, online shopping paper boxes and other products. We have encouraged rural artisans of various districts in West Bengal to collect these waste products and turn them into beautiful artefacts. We are thankful to the WBHIDCO authorities to give us a platform to showcase these products and look to enhance our collaboration with them in case of waste recycling pertaining to this new township. We have also collaborated with popular Kolkata based artisans. The iconic Durga that is available with us is designed from recycled newspaper pulp by artist Kakoli Chattyopadhyay.”

Speaking about her gallery in Eco Park, Mukherjee stated, “This is the first ever outlet in India initiated by WBHIDCO for recycled products. In the near future, we are planning to organise workshops to create new products using solid waste materials.”

This endeavour has been widely appreciated. Recently, Bruce Bucknell, British Deputy High Commissioner, Kolkata, visited the gallery in Eco Park.

KSCH has initiated dialogue with the Mexican government for a project aimed at opening new avenues for inter cultural ex-change, development of marketing, and solid waste management.