The big fat parties
and weddings are an indication of prestige in India. They also indicate that
you are going to see a huge amount of waste at and after this occasion. Let’s find
some inspiration in our talk with Mr. Bodhankar and know how an organization
contributes for a better environment-
Rahul Bodhankar is an hotel management
graduate from IIHM , Aurangabad & Diploma holder from NIEM, Mumbai. He’s
has been playing the role of the Director of Occasions Event Management Company
for 8 years now. Occasions Pvt. Ltd. is an event management company having
expertise in organizing & executing Social, Corporate and Special events at
any scale. In our conversation with him, we found how any organization that
takes responsibility of its own waste is the silver lining..
1. How does your organization manage
waste?
There
are two types of services where we need to manage our waste – First is Catering
and second is other parts of events like decor , Mandap etc.
In Catering, we have a system called 4-buckets which is
mandatory for all caterers on our panel. In four different bins, we categorize
our waste as- 1. Dry waste, 2. Wet waste, 3. Plastic & disposables, 4. Hard
accessories. If there is some leftover food in any event we ask the caterer’s
staff to take it home or we give it to The Roti bank. (Roti Bank is an NGO in
Aurangabad).
In the other category of waste from decoration materials, we ask
the shopkeeper at the bouquet shop to use the same flowers for resale and we
make sure that he does the same.
2.
Do you face any obstacle while doing so?
No,
there are no major obstacles. Sometimes caterers try to save, but as I was a caterer
before, I know where can he malpractice and I manage accordingly. Guests are
not involved in our system of waste management.
3.
In years of your working as an event manager, do you see any
noticeable change in people’s attitude towards waste? In caterer's,
worker's, NGO's or maybe your guest’s?
There
is quite a significant change in people’s attitude, especially among youngsters
when it comes to waste. Now small kids & young crowd ask us about our
contribution in Swacch Bharat mission. Some kids even tell us- “Uncle
clean karna pakka Modiji bolte hai (Please do clean as our PM Modiji says)”. Some
communities also have awareness in this direction now but not enough. We as a
company take this up voluntarily.
4.
Being an organization, what inspires you to incorporate waste
management in your plan?
For
us waste management is our duty and this thought works as our inspiration too. Also,
our policy for waste management works for us as USP( Unique Selling Proposition
in marketing and advertising).
5.
We see how much waste is generated in big fat parties and
weddings all over the world. What message do you want to give to people
involved in this?
I
would just like to ask the hosts of these parties to keep the catering menu
short and simple. Have just one variety of each kind & enjoy. Although, we
know we can't eat more than 500gms we try to include every possible thing in
our party menu. You are making the caterer rich and harming the ecosystem. This
can never be prestigious.