Sameera Satija – The Crockery Bank Lady

Sameera Satija is a true Gurgaon citizen volunteer who brought a remarkable initiative of ‘Crockery Bank for Everyone‘. She is an auditor by profession and a firm believer of sustainable living and a chemical free lifestyle. She has been working as a social volunteer for waste management initiatives for past few years. Her quest to find solutions for reducing disposable waste led her to build the concept of Crockery Bank.

Sameera would see the styrofoam and plastic waste littered or accumulated after social or public gatherings and felt a ardent desire to step up for this social responsibility and bring this excessive use of non-biodegradable waste to a minimal. She started with taking workshops to educate people for minimizing the use of such disposables. Her search for a sustainable solution ended with recollection of ‘langar’ utensils at Gurudwaras. She planned to work on idea of spreading the re-use of stainless steel thalis for social or religious gatherings.

On the day of Nirjala Ekadashi in the peak summer of 2018, she decided to kick start the concept of ‘Crockery Bank for Everyone’. She and few of her close relatives and friends pitched in finances to buy steel thalis and glasses and stock them to be used for anyone for any kind of event completely free of any charge. She has kept adding to the her crockery bank with contributions from many over the time.

Crockery Bank works on simple format of Take-Use-Wash-Dry-Return. It was specifically kept at no charge basis to attract and motivate more and more people to use this available resource. This would not only save them expenses but also save our environment. It also is easily accessible and in reach for all sections of the society without paying for anything. The users only have to make sure it is returned back completely and in clean and dried conditions.

The initiative has welcomed by all social segments with much enthusiasm in no time and similar crockery banks started emerging not only in Gurgaon but also getting duplicated across the country. Till date 32 teams all over India have started similar banks and with the collective effort have saved use of over 370,000 one time plastic waste.

Undoubtedly this initiative has made waves across media and the coverage on various platforms has helped the concept to reach out to far and wide audience.

Sameera has been recently felicitated under ‘Sustainability Vision: 2030’ by Ministry of Steel, Government of India.

Sameera sends out a loud message to each and every one of us to be conscientious, mindful and thoughtful of using disposable utensils and embrace this way of steel utensil usage.

It is now time to follow her lead and make that small effort to build a crockery bank in your neighbourhood or societies and do our little bit to conserve nature.