The school children of Kota in Rajasthan are on a mission to make their city plastic-free under the Sagar Mitra Project. Students are encouraged to collect all kinds of plastic waste from their homes and submit them at the school to gain marks as well as earn some money (INR8 per kg). The school management sells this collected resource to scrap dealers.
Thus most of the plastic waste and polythene bags are being prevented from entering the dump yards and water bodies in the city. Currently, this initiative is being implemented only in 6 schools, which have a strength of around 5,000 students. However, these 5,000 students have already collected around 2,250kg of plastic in one month, which was sent for recycling.
Kota’s school children are participating in this campaign with a lot of enthusiasm and they are now motivating their parents to keep separate bins for plastic waste. If this campaign spreads across all the schools in Kota and is implemented in the same way, then such non-biodegradable waste can prevented from scattering on the roads or open lands.
Source: Times of India
