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|[pic] | Conserve Delhi 2010 Project |

| |Press Kit |

| |Media Contacts |

| |Liz Franzmann M +91 9953 969 248 (until Nov 29) |

| |E lizfranzmann@ |

| |Anita Ahuja M +91 9999 501 200 E anita@ |

| |Blog: |

| |Web: |

FACT SHEET: Wed 24th Nov, 2010

Corporates help clean up Commonwealth Games waste

• The Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee granted Conserve India permission to upcycle Commonwealth Games promotional billboard waste after the event was completed

• Approximately 25 tonnes of this banner waste was collected from the streets of Delhi to be sold as scrap by the Games signage supplier, Signage India Pty Ltd

• The billboards or flex banners are made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC

• Conserve india purchased some of the banners from Signage India to develop a new range of vinyl upcycled products and to demonstrate a positive approach to dealing with major event waste (the Conserve Delhi 2010 pilot project)

• Following media coverage of this Commonwealth Games upcycling pilot, Conserve India was contacted by Aviva regarding promotional waste from Aviva’s global ‘You are the Big Picture’ brand campaign -

• From 15 November to 21 November 2010, Aviva projected photos - donated by members of the public - onto a 20m x 20m flex banner hung from a wall of Statesman House Connaught Place, Delhi

• Aviva engaged Conserve India to create a range of school stationery products from the Statesman House banner material

• Around 400 stationery items will be made by combining the Aviva banner with the Commonwealth Games banners

• The stationery products will be distributed to disadvantaged school children at Delhi-based education projects identified by Aviva and Conserve India

• The successful conclusion of Conserve India’s Commonwealth Games upcycling pilot demonstrates the following:

o It’s possible to upcycle and sell major event waste as products of higher value

o Potential for major sporting events to leave positive environmental and social legacies by working with local social businesses

o Corporate interest in developing product takeback or ‘closed loop’ schemes to reduce environmental and social impacts of their activities in India

For more on the Conserve India’s Commonwealth Games upcycling project visit

Conserve Delhi 2010 Photogallery

Please contact lizfranzmann@ should you require high resolution images.

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Collecting the Games banners from Sign-Age India

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Sample Commonwealth Games messenger bag developed for Conserve India’s new vinyl product range

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Sample Commonwealth Games messenger bag developed for Conserve India’s new vinyl product range

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|Aviva’s ‘You are the Big Picture’ campaign at Statesman House, Connaught Place, Delhi |

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Conserve India collects the Aviva banner from Statesman House on Mon 22nd Nov, 2010

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Other upcycling materials donated from the Aviva campaign. Conserve’s American design intern, Jenna Chen, examines metal carabiners used to hold the Statesman House banner in place.

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Sample school stationery products developed for Aviva

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Sample school stationery product (pencil case) developed for Aviva

CONSERVE DELHI 2010 – FACT SHEET

1. What’s the Conserve Delhi 2010 project

2. What’s upcycling?

3. What’s up with polyvinyl chloride (PVC)?

4. What’s a social enterprise?

5. More on Conserve India

6. More on Delhi’s ragpickers

7. More on the Endeavour Award Program

1. WHAT’S THE CONSERVE DELHI 2010 PROJECT?

The Conserve Delhi 2010 Project is a collaboration between Australian Endeavour Award scholar Liz Franzmann and Delhi-based upcyclers, Conserve India. The project aims to:

1. create new valuable products out of Commonwealth Games waste – establishing Delhi 2010 as the first Games to upcycle event waste

2. enhance Conserve India’s capacity to improve the wellbeing of Delhi’s poorest communities by selling more of their upcycled product

3. raise public awareness of waste issues and the benefits of upcycling, particularly  at major events.

For more on the project:

2. WHAT’S UPCYCLING?

← Put simply, it’s the “reuse” in “reduce, reuse, recycle”. Upcycling is about taking disposable or discarded things and repurposing them into valuable, useful, or simply aesthetically pleasing items.

← How is it different to recycling? Recycling also prevents waste from going to our garbage dumps by extracting materials from items once they have been discarded. But recycling technologies can often lead to ‘downcycling’ of materials into products of lesser quality or value.

← Useful reference: McDonough and Braungart and their book Cradle to Cradle

3. WHAT’S UP WITH POLYVINYL CHLORIDE?

The Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games banners were made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a highly durable yet difficult to recycle material:

← PVC is a plastic called polyvinyl chloride. PVC is commonly referred to as vinyl and the two names are interchangeable. PVC is a resin. Depending on the function required, the resin is combined with other materials such as plasticisers, stabilisers, lubricants and colorants.

← PVC is incredibly adaptable and durable. It’s also waterproof and fire resistant. Because of these properties it’s a plastic that permeates our daily lives.

← From a safety, health and environmental perspective, concern has been raised about PVC regarding:

o The potential release of cancer causing chemicals, dioxins, in production and disposal of PVC

o The use of chlorine in producing PVC, because of known impacts of some organochlorine compounds, such as Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), on the environment

o Phthalates, used to soften PVC for flexible applications;

o Heavy metal compounds used to heat stabilise the polymer for processing.

← Useful references:

and a list of PVC products and alternatives

4. WHAT’S A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and/or environmental as well as financial – is often referred to as the triple bottom line. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation.

References:





5. MORE ON CONSERVE INDIA

Conserve India:

← began as an non-governmental organisation recycling neighbourhood waste and quickly grew to tackling the bigger issue of plastic bags

← developed a unique heat-pressing solution to this problem – Handmade Recycled Plastic (HRP). Because the plastic is kept in its original form and colour, Conserve's upcycling technique is energy efficient and doesn’t need dyes.

← works with several hundred people from disadvantaged communities across the city, including the city’s informal waste collectors or ‘ragpickers’

← pays a fair wage to employees (An average rag picker earns $25 a month. A rag picker working for Conserve will earn on average $70 a month) and offers training and development opportunities for staff to be promoted from within the organisation



← has established a school and health projects providing education and medical facilities to those who would otherwise not have access to these basic services



6. MORE ON DELHI’S RAGPICKERS

The following points are sourced from two recent articles containing good context information on Delhi’s waste situation and Games impact -



and Chintan – a research and advocacy non-profit for the informal recycling sector in Delhi:

← there are approximately 150,000 waste or ragpickers operating across Delhi

← Delhi produces 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes of municipal waste every day (Note: it’s estimated that the Commonwealth Games will generate around 160 tonnes of waste per day - )

← many of the ragpickers have health problems - such as respiratory illnesses and anaemia - from poor living and working conditions

← ragpickers currently recycle around 20% of Delhi’s household waste

← Delhi’s informal recycling sector reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 962,133 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, over three times more than other waste projects slated to receive carbon credits in the city. That means the savings are equivalent to removing roughly 175,000 passenger vehicles from the roads annually or providing electricity to about 130,000 homes for one year.

7. MORE ON THE ENDEAVOUR AWARD PROGRAM

The Endeavour Awards is an Australian Government scholarship program providing opportunities for citizens from participating countries to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia.  Awards are also available for Australians to do the same abroad.

Reference:

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