Article by Nityashri Sankaran – Grade 11, Delhi Private School, Sharjah

It is important to make people aware of the importance of keeping our planet healthy and clean, especially children, the youth of tomorrow. We all know that the earth is suffering from pollution and global warming with alarming climate changes, and have to do our bit to improve sustainable living. It is a fact that by 2050, if current consumption and production patterns remain the same and with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.

Living sustainably is about simple daily acts like segregating our waste, following 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), saving water, not wasting food, or simply talking to children and spreading awareness. In UAE, Emirates Environmental group is an agency which provides a good platform for school children to participate in monthly events that spread awareness and in a way collaborate and do their bit. I have been participating in Neighborhood recycling project since 5 consecutive years and contributed in various categories like paper, plastic and toners.

The project involves preparing a flyer to be distributed to your Neighbors and then creating a network of friends and family to segregate and collect for you for an intended and scheduled 2 week period. You need to complete the target for the student – like 500 Kgs papers, 50 toners etc. to be able to receive a tree in your name to be planted in December 2019 and receive your completion certificate of achievement. Having done it in the past, and since I have established recycling friends, I collected and recycled 75 toners and 300 kgs paper in 2 weeks through EEG campaign. It is a productive project for students to engage in during the summer break, in addition to developing a recycling friends circle so you can pursue the effort throughout the year. It is important not only for you to engage, but to motivate and involve the community in the effort as well and this is well achieved through this project. It is not about doing recycling once, it is about practicing it in day to day life. I call on each one of us to Act Now for the future of our generations and take a pledge to make a difference to Mother Earth!