Responsible Tourism Need for a behavioural change
Karo Sambhav, an electronic waste PRO offering solutions for e-waste management and EPR Services in India and have been working on sustainable tourism criteria for India that not only initiates infrastructural adjustments but behavioural changes. Karo Sambhav has partnered with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH India (GIZ India) under the development public private partnership (DeveloPPP.de) framework of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ) to resolve the many aspects of waste management with responsible and sustainable tourism.
India is fast emerging as an economic and industrial power but the burgeoning population and accelerated urbanisation in the country have resulted in an environment at risk and greenhouse gas emissions that continue to spiral upwards.
Furthermore, waste and pollution due to tourism have far-reaching impacts on the environment, wildlife, tourists themselves, and local communities. Litter along coasts transforms beaches into less desirable destinations; untreated sewage in the rivers/seas pose a grave threat to aquatic life; waste diminishes the quality of life for residents; trash that is left behind in scenic areas detracts from the natural beauty of such areas and throws off the ecosystem balance. Studies estimate that 14 percent of all the solid waste, each year, is produced solely by tourists. As the tourism industry is prone to overconsumption, it consequently produces a substantial amount of waste which puts tremendous stress on the local waste management systems – especially because the increase in waste streams is seasonal as many tourist destinations have peak seasons in either summer or winter.
The tourism industry has very consciously realized its negative impact and hence the new tourism policy has the overarching goal of sustainable & responsible tourism. Sustainable tourism criteria for India have been developed which highlight the need for not only infrastructural adjustments but behavioural changes wherein both residents & visitors have a major role to play in sustainable waste management. The concept of a Responsible Traveller targets the behaviour of visitors to ensure that there are no adverse social, cultural & environmental impacts on the destination city. This has been in India’s pipeline for almost a decade now but of late there has been a great deal of resolve within the sector to mainstream sustainability in tourism. To complement these efforts, last year the Himachal Pradesh State government introduced a plastic waste buy-back policy at Rs. 75 per kg of plastic waste and 1.5 years into the pandemic they have bought more than 1.35 lakh kg of plastic at INR 97 lakh.
Keeping the above theme in mind, GIZ India & Karo Sambhav have been working together under the development public private partnership (DeveloPPP.de) framework of the BMZ. The waste management project is being implemented in Varanasi, Goa & Ghaziabad with the objective of developing scalable, transparent, financially sustainable waste management systems as well as generating awareness amongst 100,000 stakeholders on the importance of recycling plastic and e-waste.
Recently at a Webinar on ‘Role of citizens and Bulk consumers in Waste Management in Tourist cities’, R.K. Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism emphasized, “Under Swadesh Darshan scheme, we are currently working in 400 destinations which have a component of Sustainable Waste Management in them and have successfully implemented said scheme least 100 monuments. Work is now being done to replicate it at a city level.”
Karo Sambhav is a country-wide organisation, currently spread across 29 states, 3 union territories, and over 60 cities. Through our technologyenabled e-waste management programme, we provide producers and global brands with comprehensive
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) services. They aim to transform e-waste from a challenge to a formalised and environmentally conscious industry that provides fair value to all the stakeholders in the value chain. In just three years of their operations, they have successfully collected and sent over 13000 MTs of electronic -waste for responsible recycling and have collected 1170MT of plastic waste so far.
Karo Sambhav wants to bring manufacturers, distributors and recyclers together to coordinate their efforts to tackle e-waste, creating a more sustainable, circular economy.
For over 60 years, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been working jointly with partners in India for sustainable economic, ecological, and social development.
The Government of India has launched numerous important initiatives to address the country’s economic, environmental and social challenges, and GIZ is contributing to some of the most significant ones. For example, it supports key initiatives such as Smart Cities, Clean India and Skill India. GIZ, in close cooperation with Indian partners, devises tailor-made, jointly-developed solutions to meet local needs and achieve sustainable and inclusive development.