Give us waste, enjoy free meals: Kullu municipal corporation

MANALI: Kullu , the town which is struggling with waste management as it has no site to dump garbage , has come up with an innovative way to make people participate. It has started a Waste to Taste cafe where residents can enjoy free meals when they bring in trash.


The cafe, managed by Kullu municipal corporation (MC), would be open to the public from Saturday.

When the residents hand over segregated glass, plastic or e-waste to the authority at a particular place, they will get a coupon to buy a meal. A family of four people can have a complete meal for free. MC will be contracting out the task of preparing meals to some restaurant in town, the process for which is already on, said the officials.

After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered to close its dumping site, which was polluting the Beas river and environment a few months ago, Kullu faced its garbage nightmare. The MC was left without a place to dump and treat the tonnes of garbage that was collected every day. The search for an appropriate site is still on. Meanwhile, the authorities were forced to stock garbage at multiple places. The situation worsened when the residents, after the door-to-door garbage collection stopped for a while, started throwing garbage everywhere.

Kullu deputy commissioner Richa Verma hoped the cafe will change things for the better. People who were throwing garbage could now be lured into sorting and handing over them, she added. "People can enjoy coffee, ice cream, pizza, burger, local cuisines and dinner with four family members. To get a free coupon for a particular item, people will have to deposit glass, plastic, paper or e-waste in a particular quantity. This innovative initiative will start from August 10," she said.

According to her, people were littering everywhere, which was polluting water sources. "We have urged people to collect waste from their house, premises and neighbourhood and hand it over to MC and enjoy the free meal ."