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Project cited by Narendra Modi transforms plastic waste into meals in the Indian city of Ambikapur and returned to the debate for uniting urban cleanliness, material reuse, and food support for vulnerable people.
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, mentioned the Garbage Café in Ambikapur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, as an example of a municipal initiative aimed at reducing the irregular disposal of plastic.
The project allows residents to deliver plastic waste and receive food in exchange: 1 kilogram entitles you to a full meal, while half a kilogram can be exchanged for a snack or breakfast.
The mention occurred in the 127th episode of the radio program “Mann Ki Baat,” broadcast on October 26, 2025.
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The proposal resurfaced in the Indian news because it combines two public policy fronts: urban waste management and food provision for people in vulnerable situations.
In practice, discarded plastic ceases to be just a problem for city cleanliness and becomes part of a system of collection, weighing, and forwarding for reuse.
How the Garbage Café works in Ambikapur
The Garbage Café is operated by the municipal administration of Ambikapur.
In the model described by the Indian government and local media, residents deliver discarded plastic at designated points and receive food according to the amount collected.
Those who present 1 kilogram of waste can receive lunch or dinner; with half a kilogram, the exchange is made for a smaller option, like a snack.
When announced in 2019, the project primarily targeted people without resources to buy meals, as well as waste pickers and residents willing to collect plastic from the streets.
At the time, then-mayor Ajay Tirkey told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that anyone could donate plastic and that the café would be run mainly by women.
The initial information about the service mentioned common dishes in Indian cuisine, such as rice, curry, lentils, and papadams.
For smaller volumes of plastic, the exchange could involve breakfast items, including samosas, lentil fritters, and stuffed breads.
The format brings waste collection closer to an immediate reward, without relying on complex mechanisms to engage the population.
The operation, however, depends on a public structure behind the exchange.
Plastic needs to be received, weighed, separated, and directed for recycling or other forms of reuse.
Without this step, food delivery would have a limited effect on the city’s environmental management.
Indian city gained prominence for urban cleanliness
Ambikapur was already featured in national urban cleanliness programs before the café was created.
The city adopted door-to-door collection and waste separation with the participation of women organized into work groups, which helped the municipality gain visibility in Indian sanitation and cleanliness rankings.
In 2020, the government of India reported that Ambikapur was among the cities rated with five stars in the national “garbage-free cities” protocol.
The list also included Indore, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot, and Mysuru, municipalities evaluated by criteria related to solid waste management.
In this context, the Garbage Café functions as a complementary action to the local cleaning policy.
The exchange for food does not replace regular collection nor solve the plastic problem in isolation, but it creates an additional incentive for waste discarded in public areas to enter the formal management system.
The initiative also differentiates itself from traditional educational campaigns because it offers a concrete reward to those who collect the material.
For the municipal administration, the model allows reinforcing selective collection; for part of the population, it represents immediate access to a meal.
Project returned to debate after Narendra Modi’s speech
Modi’s speech gave new projection to the Garbage Café by presenting it as a local experience in combating plastic pollution.
During the “Mann Ki Baat,” the Prime Minister highlighted that the project allows exchanging waste for food and associated the initiative with the participation of Chhattisgarh residents in urban cleaning actions.
Indian newspapers, such as the Times of India, echoed the statement and revisited the details of the café’s operation.
The reports highlighted the exchange by weight rule and the role of the Ambikapur Municipal Corporation in conducting the project.
The topic is part of a broader national discussion.
Since July 1, 2022, India has banned the manufacture, import, storage, distribution, sale, and use of certain low-utility and high-pollution potential disposable plastics, such as cutlery, cups, straws, and other single-use items.
Even with the ban, the volume of plastic waste remains high.
Data reported to the Indian Parliament indicates that the country generated 4,136,188.83 tons of plastic waste in the financial year 2022-23.
The data corresponds to the information provided by state pollution control boards and committees responsible for environmental monitoring.
Collected plastic enters urban policy
The experience of Ambikapur is frequently cited because it transforms plastic collection into a direct and measurable exchange.
The resident collects the waste, delivers the material, goes through weighing, and receives food.
At the same time, the city gains an additional way to remove plastic from the streets and direct it to subsequent treatment stages.
Reports published since the café’s creation indicate that Ambikapur already used the sale of recycled plastic and paper as part of its waste management policy.
The city was also associated with the use of plastic in roadworks, a practice adopted in different regions of India as an alternative to reuse part of this material.
The technical description requires care.
Such roads are not made solely of plastic.
In general, shredded waste is included in the composition of mixtures used in paving, along with conventional materials.
Therefore, the more precise formulation is to say that plastic can be incorporated into infrastructure works, and not that it fully replaces all components of a road.
In urban routine, the exchange proposed by the café creates a direct relationship between disposal, collection, and reward.
This type of action does not eliminate the need for larger policies, such as reducing packaging production, monitoring prohibited items, and expanding recycling, but it acts on a visible stage of the problem: the waste that reaches the streets.
Initiative combines food and combat against plastic waste
The Garbage Café has also been observed for bringing together themes usually addressed in separate areas of public administration.
On one hand, there is the fight against the irregular disposal of plastic; on the other, the provision of food to people in poverty.
The combination of the two fronts helps explain the initiative’s impact both inside and outside India.
Waste management experts often point out that local programs have a higher chance of adherence when the population understands the practical benefit of participation.
In the case of Ambikapur, the rule by weight makes the process visible and easy to follow, reducing the distance between the act of collecting plastic and the result obtained.
The experience, however, depends on administrative continuity.
To maintain operation, the municipality needs to fund the meals, organize the receipt of waste, and ensure proper disposal of the collected material.
If these steps fail, the initiative loses part of its environmental purpose.
Replication in other cities would also require adaptation.
Municipalities with high waste generation, low collection infrastructure, or little sorting capacity would need to address these issues before adopting a similar model.
Food, in this case, is just the most visible aspect of a mechanism that involves logistics, sanitation, public budgeting, and social participation.
By returning to the news, the Garbage Café reinforces a question discussed in different countries: how to make waste reduction closer to people’s daily lives.
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