Ludhiana IRS Officer Creates Vertical Garden with Discarded Plastic Bottles

While plastic pollution has been bothering the whole planet, few ingenious ideas have been providing the solution to that problem. Rohit Mehra, Additional Commissioner in the Income Tax Department, has put 70 tonnes of waste plastic bottles to good use. The IRS officer creates vertical garden using discarded plastic bottles in Ludhiana.

Aiming to reduce plastic pollution, Mehra crafted over 500 vertical gardens at many public places. Mehra used about 70 tonnes of waste plastic water bottles as planters to create vertical gardens in Ludhiana, Punjab.

Four years ago, my child told me that the school had declared holidays due to high air pollution. This set me thinking. I wondered why we could not even provide clean air to our children. The push came from there.

He said.

He is not only trying to bring down air pollution but also to recycle single-use plastics with this unique initiative. The officer has set up these vertical gardens in a number of public places across the city including schools, colleges, gurudwaras, churches, police stations, government offices, and railway stations.

The recycled green walls make for simple yet charming jewels across the city. Furthermore, they are hydrated with drip irrigation, a technique that ensures that plants are satiated and water is conserved – the technique saves about 92 percent water.

He further added,

It is a cost-effective and space-efficient solution for urban greenery. The vertical gardens also save the environment as you reuse plastic wastes as pots. Thanks to drip irrigation, these gardens save 92% water. A scientist from Punjab Agricultural University had conducted a study in the areas where there is a vertical garden and found 75% reduction in pollution as per the air quality index (AQI) of the city.

Mehra desires to get this message across every household, so that people do it in their homes too, thus reducing plastic waste. He has a popular nickname of ‘Green Man’ in Ludhiana.