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Top 6 Easy Changes Every School Can Adopt To Reduce Waste

 



There are many reasons to make schools more sustainable. The most vital reason is educating the majority on the importance of waste generation & its management. Building sustainable school & school life will spread awareness in students and the others like parents, management etc. Living a zero-waste or low waste lifestyle is a choice. But it is highly essential to know about waste generation and its impact, especially the waste generated out of things we do not need or can be easily swapped.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

1.     NO use & throw pens: If the school has an on-campus school apparel gear service, don’t sell use & throw. Encourage using reusable or eco-friendly (if possible) school stationery. Gift eco-friendly school stationery to students on occasions. 

2.     No use of plastic straws or containers for food in school canteens: There are many alternatives to plastic kitchen cutlery available in the markets such as reusable metal straws, bamboo straws, etc, bio-degradable plates etc Straws are not a necessity as such; schools can easily stop providing for straws cutting down the cost.  

3.     Bringing in a reusable metal water bottle, Tiffin boxes & cutlery must be made compulsory: Students & teachers can refill water easily whenever necessary. Reusable Metal cutlery is a one-time investment; unlike plastic. School canteens must invest in metal reusable cutlery. You can also make students bring-in their own, which will normalize carrying their own cutlery even if you choose to eat out.

4.     No thermocol projects: Leave room for creativity in its earth-friendly form. Please do not ask students of 3rd standard to make a postbox out of thermocol. #truestory 

     Make project’s practical. For eg: setting up a composting bin & maintaining it. Instead of giving projects to finish from the comfort of their home; in-school group projects will ensure learning. Because let’s face it; our parents finish our project.   

5.     No need to distribute use and throw tetra soft drinks packets on occasions: Every time we had some occasion in school, be it independence day or annual day, every student used to receive a packet of Samosas & soft drink tetra packet with an attached straw. Why? Thankfully samosas were given in paper bags. There are other means of distributing snacks.

6.     No need to change school dress code every now & then: Reuse should be the mantra. We Indians have always been in favour of reusable. The younger child always gets the elder sibling’s clothing. Our mothers have always bought clothes which were too large to fit. My school attached a batch in our shirts to celebrate Golden Jubilee. After 1 year all those batches went into the dustbin. One can argue that it was a small square cloth batch but considering the amount of waste thrown out; it's a lot. Also, why create waste in the first place. Again #truestory


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