Bench (press) your waste - IIby | 02-02-2013 15:00 |
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Continued from Part I.... Before we started the project, all the waste plastic bottles and were together dumped at a dumping space, which degraded the soil of that area and occupy landfill space. Due to this, we saw the need for this project. We started this project in sector Faridabad, Haryana , where now waste instead of being burnt or dumped in landfill spaces or in the local canal, choking it with plastic and waste. This used to, earlier lead to pollution of all forms. To verify need for the project, we visited the office of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad to use their surveys, information etc. to confirm the need of this project. We also consulted the Municipal Corporation Officers for the validation of the ideas and processes put to use by us in our project, while also the requirement of this project in our communities. Support came from the Municipal Corporation Faridabad. The Green the gene team worked for the plan of actions .We are trying to get these benches all over the city so that there is less wastage of the resources and waste can be reused .At present We have made the benches and have placed them in our school and its vicinity . On a small scale, we collaborated with the local ?kabadiwala? (the waste recyclers) who helped us with getting the bottles. After doing this, the underprivileged children of ?prakashdeep and prayas? volunteered to help us make the benches,the bottles were collected and assembled to make the benches in a way where minimum number of them could be used. Along with this,three boards made up of husk and chaff were placed to give the bench rigidity along with air cushioning. We have sent the project details to our ministry of environment , ministry of water commission , municipal cooperation of Delhi . We have got the support of the ministry . In future, we have planned to take this initiative to a national level so that, it may be replicated by others as well .Also, the plan includes getting these benches to more public places like public parks , railway stations etc. Green the gene?s vision of this project is to get the waste plastic bottles in use and save the metal that is at present used for the construction of the benches. . By this project a large amount of waste plastic bottles are brought under use and are not burned or dumped in the soil, which is a major contributor to the increasing soil and air pollution levels. Our main target is to enhance the socio-environmental factor by letting the underprivileged children volunteer for this initiative. We are successfully now able to make park / garden benches using 133 waste plastic bottles (common 2L variants) along with hay chaff boards for support, these save about 70-80 kg of metal (usually iron) that is used in a conventional bench. We have been able to replicate this idea and benches over the city and aspire to take it further with assistance of the corporates and the Central Public Works Department to all over the state. This project has multi-faceted impacts, it not only improves and involves local waste recyclers and collectors but also puts plastic bottles (usually never recycled in India) to good use, along with saving metal for other purposes.
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