White-collared go on a Swachh drive in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Over 150 professionals including CEOs, doctors and architects have come under one banner to clear trash at events they are invited to, free of cost.

Green Nest attends events on invitation and cleans up areas of pamphlets, tissue paper, glasses and water bottles that are carelessly discarded by the audience. The group does not work for commercial interests but only at events which have social interest.

Green Nest was most recently spotted with gloves and black garbage bags, at last Sunday’s Rotathon, a 5-km run, at People’s Plaza.  

“Events bring people together but also generate waste. We work at special events to help the organisers in waste management. We don’t charge for it,” said BTech students and Green Nest members L. Chandralekha and Bharani Reddy.

“We don’t get involved in any commercial event. We volunteer our time for social welfare events and those that promote a cause. We work for events which are organised to promote the society’s interest at large,” they said.

The team disposes of leaflets, tissue papers, plastic or paper glasses, PET bottles and tetra packs. Some festival organisers are beginning to go green in their events to minimise their impact on the environment.

Ms Sri Lakshmi, a  dentist and volunteer, said that an estimate prepared by the Union urban development ministry in 2009 had put the cost of waste management at Rs 48,582 crore. “What could it be now, in 2016?  In the words of the PM, India loses an average of Rs 6,500 per person due to lack of cleanliness and hygiene, based on figures provided by the World Health Organisation.,” she said.

Green Nest wants urban  municipal bodies  to  discourage littering by filing criminal cases on those who dirty the city and impose penalties on them.

Hyderabad citizens take the eco-friendly path

Organisers of events and festivals are slowly adopting environment friendly practices.

Green banqueting includes no paper invitation — guests are invited through messages and if deleted they can check the invite on the website of the event — use of green conference material such as recycled paper, Good On One Side (GOOS) paper for printing and photocopying and wood-free polymer/plastic pencils for writing, mementos made of organic substances and finally, request to guests to carpool.

Event manager Manjula Reddy said green banqueting design addresses the issue of waste at events. Some of the other initiatives include name tags that aren’t enclosed in plastic and are returned after use for recycling. Carpooling needs to be encouraged for runs and walks, she said.

Events manager Anand Swaroop suggested that the venues that are chosen have an explicit environmental policy and green strategy. “The event management industry must be encouraged to have eco-friendly zero-waste equipment,” he said.

Recently, a city hotel held a banquet to spread awareness on green meetings which is catching up among companies.