A small step transforming into a big leap
How our waste management practices are protecting our Himalayan region.
By Uday Nair, Youth Engagement Coordinator
A few years back, Jhamtse Gatsal began facing a growing challenge - plastic waste. The region was struggling with waste management, and the situation was getting worse. Jhamtse Gatsal decided to tackle the plastic crisis head-on within the Community and for our region.
Clean-up drive in/around the Jhamtse Gatsal campus
By inspiring the children and community members to start managing our waste and recycling plastic, we saw an immediate impact. Project Earth, a children-led, community-based waste management program, came to life at Jhamtse Gatsal as part of our efforts to become a zero-waste community. The children took the initiative home with them and inspired their village communities to save their region from plastic pollution. Their efforts with guidance and support from Lobsang Phuntsok and Project Earth facilitators—Uday, Ophelia, and Tenzin—heightened awareness throughout the region.
Tsering P and Lobsang Y showcasing recycled products made at Jhamtse Gatsal
Tsering P and Lobsang Y making recycled products
Project Earth received its first accolade—the Wipro Earthian award—and ongoing support from the Wipro Earthian Program, an initiative of WiproCares—Wipro Ltd.’s CSR Division. Jhamtse Gatsal hired a local Sustainability Educator with their support and guidance to amplify the program within the region.
Our Sustainability Educator, Thutan Drema, conducting waste management workshops across the district
Uday Nair (left) and Thutan Drema (2nd from left) with The Women’s Welfare Association team (WWA) and an Army official at Gorsam, near the Tibet border
The Women’s Welfare Association (WWA), a non-profit from nearby Tawang, visited the campus to learn about our program. In no time, the compassionately-driven women joined hands with Jhamtse Gatsal to advocate and support the zero-waste and plastic recycling mission to save the region from the plastic crisis. WWA has three active branches—Jung, Lungla, and Tawang—and all branches are highly engaged in mobilizing the mission of collecting, segregating, cleaning, and delivering clean plastic to Jhamtse Gatsal.
Lobsang Phuntsok showing our recycled products to the WWA members during their visit to Jhamtse Gatsal
WWA member segregating and cleaning the collected plastic
WWA members segregating and cleaning the collected plastic
The Indian Army also joined hands with Jhamtse Gatsal and WWA to support the mission. Many units of the Indian Army actively participate in the cause, and on Vijay Diwas last year, Miss Tashi—one of the WWA members—represented the region and our collective effort towards waste management to the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. In this photo, PM Modi is seen holding and admiring a product made at Jhamtse Gatsal using recycled plastic.
Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi admires a product made at Jhamtse Gatsal using recycled plastic on television.
Local government school headmasters got enthused by Jhamtse Gatsal’s Founder, Lobsang Phuntsok discussion on interdependence and responsibility during the Educate the Educators workshops and brought the waste management practices to their school communities. Today, many government school children joyously go on clean-up drives within their areas to collect, segregate and clean plastic waste to deliver it to Jhamtse Gatsal for recycling.
Children from a local government school gather plastic to send the the children of Jhamtse Gatsal for recycling.
Clean-up drives and packaged clean and segregated plastic by local government school children
Our efforts have not gone unnoticed regionally. Last Independence Day, our local Member of the Legislative Assembly invited Jhamtse Gatsal to put an exhibition to showcase our waste management model to the locals and government authorities. Three students from Jhamtse Gatsal—Pema, Lobsang, and Tsering—proudly presented their work to engaged attendees.
Lobsang Y sharing our waste management practices to village elders
Our beloved late MLA, Shri Jambey Tashi, admiring and encouraging our waste management efforts
Today, what started as a small community-level engagement is blossoming into a district-wide solution for waste management. Recently, our Founder and Managing Director visited Kamikatsu—a remote zero waste village in Japan—to learn from their best practices to strengthen our budding efforts to transform our beautiful Mon Tawang region into a zero-waste district.
Our Founder, Lobsang Phuntsok, at the Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center in Japan