India’s first ‘Garbage Cafe’ offers free meals in exchange for plastic waste

• The Municipal Corporation in Ambikapur, Chattisgarh launched the country’s garbage cafe scheme.
  
• The scheme offers ragpickers and homeless people free meals in exchange for plastic or any kind of trash.
  
• The authorities have dedicated funds to the tune of ₹550,000, towards the cafe.

Chattisgarh is offering a unique solution for two burning issues in the country — hunger and plastic waste. It introduced a ‘Garbage cafe’ where people can bring in plastic trash and get a free meal in return, reported India Times

Ambikapur, a city which is home to 200,000 people, launched the country’s garbage cafe scheme which offers ragpickers and homeless people free meals in exchange for plastic or any kind of trash. The scheme also aims to provide shelter to at least 100 homeless people.

The municipal corporation has math in place on the food scheme. Every one kilo of trash earns a full meal, while 500gms earns a breakfast.

The authorities have dedicated funds to the tune of ₹550,000, towards the cafe. The scheme has an ambitious plan to build greener roads using plastic waste. There are many such cafes across the world however India's plan to build roads through a garbage cafe makes it unique.

Ambikar is the second cleanest city in India, according to Swachh Survekshan 2019 — a national ranking that determines the level of cleanliness in different cities across India.