Hyderabad: Firms draft school kids to protect environment

Hyderabad: The civic body’s call for segregation of garbage into dry and wet waste has dropped momentum, with households and offices yet to gear up to optimum level of waste management. But now environmentalists’ including recycling enthusiasts, government and major waste management companies, are eyeing students as the new foot soldiers in the cause of segregated waste management. 

A majority of the 4,000 schools in the city are involved in some environmentally-sensitive project to create awareness among students. A school of a 1,000 students can produce up to 15 kgs of dry waste, recycling of which through the year can save up to 50 trees, say experts.

“Schools have a lot of dry waste that can be managed efficiently, so we are initiating projects where students can bring in their dry waste not just from schools but also from homes and take stationeries in exchange,” said Mr Mohit Kumar, operations manager at Ramky, the waste management company that is now focusing on schools. Ramky has collaborated with ITC’s Wonder out of Waste (WoW) Project, to collect waste from over 2,000 schools.

Waste management experts believe that approaching schools to push for segregation can have better results than residential areas because segregation at home tends to get inconsistent in the long run. The WoW project of ITC has managed to get up to 8 kgs of dry waste from students on an average, which otherwise would have been mixed and discarded irresponsibly.

“It is like a competition for students, so they bring whatever they can in order to get the certificate. It’s a fun way to get the job done and make them realise their stake,” says Rajani N, school assistant of Government High School Himayatnagar where two years of segregation programmes under the GHMC have been successful.

Schools primarily have three sorts of waste paper, plastic and food wrappers each of which can be processed further. While paper and plastic can be 100 per cent recycled, wrappers of food which are made with a mix of plastic and metal are sent to cement and other energy based factories to add to their fuel requirement.

Through this initiative, the schools also have a hands on environmental project for the children which raises the level of awareness from merely bookish knowledge of environment education to practical understanding.

“Environment education can’t be forced upon children, it must be inculcated. So we would rather have our teachers and management incorporate green awareness in a practical manner rather than have a subject forced on students,” said Ms Anjali Razdan, principal of P. Obul Reddy School which has been involved in multiple activities, from planting a sapling on birthdays to installing solar panels atop the school.

Other schools are also doing their bit to sensitise children to their local surroundings and how they can be a part of the citizen brigade. “We have taken children on trips to Ramanthapur and Kapra lakes for cleanliness drives, because they must be conscious about the environment,” says Dr Narasimha Reddy, principal of Hyderabad Public School.