The environmental organisation Thant Myanmar announced that it had disposed of  27,378 viss (44,626kg) of garbage that it had bought in three Yangon townships for 100 kyats per viss. (A viss is a unit of weight equal to 1.63 kg  or 3.6 pounds.)

All last week, teams from Thant Myanmar went and bought plastic and litter from residents in different areas of the Yangon townships of Insein, Shwe Pyi Thar and Dala for 100 kyats a viss. 

They managed to buy 3,000 viss (4,890 kg) of trash from Insein Township, 11,578 viss (18,872 kg) from Shwe Pyi Thar Township and 12,800 viss (20,864 kg) from Dala Township.

“The reason we are doing this is to eliminate trash from the targeted areas. When we were buying trash the people in the townships collected as much trash as they could from the area around where they lived and sold that trash to us. There was very high participation amongst the locals and it was an effective way to keep the wards clean”, Thant Myanmar said on its Facebook page.

The organisation disposed of the trash at designated waste disposal sites in Yangon.

Thant Myanmar also provides free courses on environmental protection to interested members of the public.