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ITC's 'WOW' - 'Wealth Out of Waste' initiative in association with Ramky Group celebrates Saving of 25000 trees in Hyderabad as a part of the on going 'National Recycling Day' Celebrations under SOLT - Save One Lakh Trees and Educate Poor Children Program

Building on the success WOW - Wealth out of Waste program and as a part of the year long National Recycling Day celebrations, ITC in association with the Ramky Group have launched SOLT - Save One Lakh Trees and Educate Poor Children program to promote recycling on 1st July 2011, on the occasion of 1st anniversary of National Recycling Day. Having achieved a major milestone of saving 25000 trees in just 4 months, ITC is celebrating this success on the 19th of October 2011, with the participation of 3500 school children and several senior corporate executives and dignitaries from various walks of life, with Sri N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, as chief guest.

The celebrations to commemorate this unique achievement will comprise of a series of awareness programmes, competitions and road-hows across the city of Hyderabad, culminating in a special ceremony at the Begumpet Police Hockey Stadium, on the 19th of October 2011, to be graced by Shri N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Hon'ble Chief Minister, Govt Of Andhra Pradesh as the Chief Guest.

Recycling today, is clearly one of the most important and viable ways to combat the challenges of resource depletion. At least 30% of the net MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) is recyclable. Reducing inert materials, the net MSW could be 373 million MT per annum and at a conservative recovery level of 15% at all India level 56 million MT of recyclables like paper, plastics, metal, cloth, wood and glass can be recovered per annum through source segregation. Source Segregation of recyclables reduces the load on natural resources, provide cost effective raw material to industry, improve health and hygiene and provide clean and green surroundings.

As a responsible corporate entity, committed to positive environmental action, ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, initiated a recycling programme - WOW or 'Wealth Out of Waste' - a project that aims to inculcate the habit of recycling among school children, housewives, corporate employees and the general public as well as industries and business enterprises and reduce at least 15-25% of the garbage load through source segregation. The WOW programme is today operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Bhadrachalam, Coimbatore & Madurai. Over 3 million citizens, 500,000 school children, 350 corporates, 1000 commercial establishments and about 200 industries support WOW.

Based on the reach and impact achieved by WOW, ITC pioneered the first ever National Recycling Day on the 1st of July 2010. Over 15,000 school children participated in the programme and pledged to conserve the earth's precious natural resources through recycling.

This year as a part of the Anniversary celebrations, over 2 million citizens from across the city of Hyderabad, 350,000 school children from 1200 schools, 5,000 corporate executives, 30,000 National Green Cadet Corps (NGCC) and several commercial establishments will be participating in several programmes. These include environmental quiz contests, painting competitions, recyclables collection campaigns, road shows and slogan contests which have commenced from the 10th of June, 2011 onwards.

One of the highlights of the celebrations is the launch of a campaign to nurture 100,000 trees by recycling 5000MT of paper across Hyderabad city and approaching citizens, students, corporates, business establishments to donate recyclables. In addition, for every KG of recyclables donated ITC will apportion Rs 5/- and the funds collected thereby, will be used for providing stationery kits to 25000 underprivileged children studying in Government-aided schools.

The programme on the 19th of October 2011 at the Begumpet Police Hokey Stadium will be attended by several eminent dignitaries including Sri N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Hon'ble Chief Minister, Smt. Sabitha Indra Reddy, Hon'ble Minister for Home, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Dada Saaheb Palke award winner and Padma vibhushan Dr. Akkineni Ngeswara Rao and World Renowned Cricketer Sri. V V S Laxman among others. More than 3500 school children, 300 school teachers, 300 senior executives from Corporates and Industry will participate in the programme.

The National Green Corps (NGC) have also officially announced the 1st of July as "National Recycling Day" and are joint sponsors for the programmes on the 19th of October celebrations.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr P V Dhobale, Executive Director, ITC Limited said, "ITC in association with the Ramky group wishes to spread the WOW programme across the country over the next ten years, which on successful implementation could result in providing enough raw material for the domestic paper industry, by increasing the recovery levels, saving scarce foreign exchange, and in the process making India clean and green, by reducing the load on landfills".

The event will be marked by enlightened discussions on the importance and value of Recycling, with the aspiration to inspire and involve the nation in a consolidated effort to preserve our precious natural resources and understand the worth of waste regeneration.

ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers business is the largest and technologically most advanced in India. Besides being a market leader in the value added paperboards segment, it is the country's largest converter of paperboards into packaging and is a pioneer in the use of cutting edge environmental technology including ozone bleaching and Elemental Chlorine Free Technology. It's social and farm forestry program has greened nearly 114,000 hectares and created over 51 million person days of employment.

ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies and a diversified conglomerate with interests in Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Hotels, Paperboards and Packaging, Agri Business and Information Technology. With a market capitalisation of around US$ 33 billion and a turnover of nearly US$ 7 billion, ITC has been rated among the World's Best Big Companies, Asia's 'Fab 50' and has been ranked as the world's 6th largest 'sustainable value creator' among consumer goods companies globally, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

ITC completed a momentous journey of a 100 years in 2010, and is acknowledged as a global exemplar in triple bottom line performance. Inspired by a larger national purpose to build societal capital, ITC's businesses have contributed significantly in enhancing natural resource base and opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. ITC is the only enterprise in the world, of its size to be carbon-positive (6 years in a row), sequestering twice the amount of carbon it emits ; water-positive (9 consecutive years), creating 2 times more rainwater harvesting potential than that consumed by the group; and is solid waste recycling positive (for the last 4 years). ITC's businesses help in generating more than 5 million livelihoods across value chains that touch the lives of many who live at the margin in rural India.