Sepideh Jalali, a 25-year-old woman, initiated the charitable campaign which called on people to collect crown corks of bottled water and other plastic containers, hand them over to collecting centers and help buy the wheelchairs for those in need.

Sepideh Jalali, Iranian environmental activist

The plan was set in motion late last year [ended March 21, 2014] and was in full swing in the city by April. Finally it led to the accumulation of a stock of 650,000 corks weighing around one ton.

The charity organizers sold the corks to Tabriz Municipality’s Waste Management Organization and bought wheelchairs for six poor people who were physically challenged.

When the campaign for collecting corks was in high gear intense rivalry grew between people in Tabriz for gathering even more crown corks.

Sepideh Jalali says that the idea of collecting corks first occurred to her last year and that she was joined by…