Team Urvari, a youth-led environment group – mostly comprising 17 and 18 year olds – used almost 150 eco bricks, equaling 40 kgs of plastic waste, to build the shelter which was placed at Rajiv Gandhi Udyan, Sector 29, Vashi.

Last year, on the occasion of ‘Plastic Free July’, a team of teenagers from Navi Mumbai decided to make shelters for street dogs using plastic waste.

Once the first one was made, they started collecting more plastic waste and installed several similar structures, especially in view of the monsoon.

They started in 2019 by planting 5-10 trees every weekend, but their work stopped due to the lockdown.

“We were making plastic bottles by stuffing 300 grams of plastic waste wrappers and other things in each bottle”, Gupte said.

Shah said, “Every day tonnes of plastic goes to waste without being recycled, and street animals eat this plastic or the waste related to it when they get hungry.

Shashikant Raut, corporator of Vashi sector 29, praised the youth and made available four-five areas near gardens under his jurisdiction to install the shelter homes.