Bhubaneshwar schools turn a new leaf with ‘zero waste’ goal
BHUBANESWAR: A casual visit to the Government High School at IRC village, located in the heart of the city, reveals a remarkable journey of transformation. The school that turned smart with digital classrooms last year, has now taken another major leap - embracing the zero waste concept to shape environmentally conscious citizens of tomorrow.
In the classrooms, plastic bottles have been replaced by steel. There are designated waste segregation bins where children are taught to dispose of waste through colour-coded containers - green for wet waste, blue for recyclable items like paper and plastic and red for electronic or hazardous waste including battery and glass. The students also follow a strict routine during the mid-day meal (MDM) - avoiding food wastage, with the objective of maintaining hygiene and respecting food and resources.
“Within five months of this practice, more than half of our 2,000 odd students have stopped using plastic bottles. They are also using separate bins for trash and keeping their classrooms clean,” said school head master Pradipta Kumar Behera.
Behera said practising zero-waste was also of much significance for them as a majority of students, who are from the nearby settlements, will replicate the practice in their surroundings. “The zero waste is not just a practice, it’s a mindset. We are proud to be among the first few schools to follow this concept,” he said.
The thought process is not limited to the IRC Village school alone. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has introduced this waste-management concept at school-level, has started providing handholding and technical support to around 20 schools to transform them as ‘zero waste’ schools.
BMC first launched the initiative at Government High School at Laxmi Sagar in November last year and in a span of five months, it has transformed at least 10 government run schools into waste-free campuses. These include Government High Schools at Unit-VI, Saheed Nagar, Capital High School, Government Girls High School at Unit-IX, Government Boys High School at Unit-IX and Patia Girls High School, among others.
Advertising by Adpathway
