Plastic is the new meal card: Food in exchange of trash at 'garbage cafe' in Chhattisgarh

What’s the best you’ve ever got out of waste? In a unique step, a café will trade free food for plastic waste in the city of Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh.

The ‘garbage café’ is an initiative by the Municipal Corporation to provide a hearty meal to the homeless and the poor while incentivising garbage collection and cleanliness, Vice has reported.

The café gives you a free meal for every kilo of garbage collected, and a substantial breakfast/snack for every 500 grams of trash deposited.

Such ‘rubbish cafes’ already operate in some parts of the United States, Europe and even Cambodia. Many of them are even constructed out of waste material.

However, what makes the garbage café in Ambikapur special is its plan to use all the waste collected to build roads in the city.

Ambikapur, which is the second-cleanest city in India after Indore, already has one such road, which was constructed with 8 lakh plastic bags and asphalt, the report said.

The initiative not only pumps plastic waste into something productive, but the roads made with that plastic are also sturdier and more resistant to water (which means, effective during heavy rainfall).

Ambikapur mayor Ajay Tirkey said the café would be operated out of the city’s main bus stand and be given a budget of Rs 5 lakh. He said the Municipal Corporation even plans to expand the scheme, providing free shelter to the homeless in exchange for garbage.