Alongside the rapid growth of Indian cities, the country’s waste management challenges are also intensifying. Despite improvements in collection and processing, plastic pollution continues to rise—largely because policy and infrastructure remain focused on managing waste after it is created rather than preventing it at the source. The result is mounting heaps of solid waste at landfills and the proliferation of garbage-vulnerable points.

To address this challenge, the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune, has launched Mission City Chakra, an initiative working towards the goal of a zero-waste city by prioritising upstream sustainability solutions.

“Mission City Chakra is a school-anchored, family-activated behaviour-change model designed to eliminate avoidable plastic use at the point of daily contact. The model focuses on prevention rather than processing; health protection alongside environmental benefit; institutional leadership rather than individual guilt; and scalability without high public expenditure. At its core, MCC addresses everyday plastic exposure through small, irreversible shifts that create long-term impact,” informs Aditi Deodhar, Project Lead at the Centre for Sustainable Development, GIPE.

The first stage of the mission begins in schools, as Deodhar believes children can become catalysts of change. “Children are positioned not as passive recipients of messaging, but as active agents of change. By engaging schoolchildren, MCC seeks to build lifelong habits early, create peer-driven norm shifts, and influence household behaviour organically, as each child becomes a multiplier carrying the message home. Mission City Chakra School Model offers a scalable, low-cost blueprint for Indian cities to prevent plastic waste at source through schools, families, and upstream behaviour change,” she adds.

As part of this initiative, nearly 56,000 students from 104 schools across Pune city took the Steel Tiffin Pledge in February, committing to move away from plastic lunch boxes and adopt non-plastic food practices.

The initiative represents a significant push toward waste reduction at source, with a particular focus on plastic. Positioned as a symbol of how individual choices can drive collective impact, the steel tiffin is expected to see gradual adoption among participating schools and families from the next academic year, beginning June 2026.

Participation is being formally documented through school confirmations, attendance counts, and photographic records, and an application has been submitted to Guinness World Records under a category related to mass student participation in a pledge, subject to verification. In parallel, families across the city have been invited to take an online Family Steel Tiffin Pledge, reinforcing the campaign’s focus on aligning behaviour change at both school and household levels.

The Mission City Chakra corporate segment: Building zero-waste offices

While schools were the launchpad for Mission City Chakra, workplaces represent the next major frontier for urban waste prevention. Corporate offices generate substantial volumes of avoidable, repetitive waste—from food packaging and single-use disposables to paper, pantry waste, and procurement-linked plastics. At the same time, they shape the daily behaviour of thousands of employees, making them powerful environments for norm-setting and systems change.

Mission City Chakra is therefore working with corporate administrators and facilities teams to convert conventional workplaces into zero-waste offices through a structured, assessment-led approach.

Beyond schools and offices

Restaurant owners are also a key focus. As major generators of packaging and service waste—and as direct consumer touchpoints—restaurants play a pivotal role in shaping material norms. MCC seeks to engage this segment to reduce plastic use in food preparation and delivery, shift to safer reusable materials, and normalise plastic-free food service as an industry standard.

Meanwhile, restaurant suppliers represent another critical leverage point. The mission plans to focus on identifying non-plastic, low-impact alternatives, redesigning procurement norms, and reducing the structural plastic dependency embedded in supply chains.

At the product design and manufacturing stage, MCC will address the problem at its source. Recognising that many plastic externalities originate during design, the initiative is collaborating with designers and manufacturers to re-evaluate material selection, prioritise durability and repairability, and create products that are safe, long-lasting, and circular by default. Together, these efforts mark a clear shift—from behaviour change alone to system-level material transformation.

From pilot to national blueprint

After the city-level intervention, Deodhar states that the model will be replicated as a national framework.

“With minimal adaptation, the MCC model can support multiple national priorities, including Swachh Bharat Mission outcomes, child health and nutrition goals, plastic reduction targets, and urban climate resilience planning,” she says.