3. Segregate today for a Greener tomorrow
School Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School
K.K. Nagar Chennai 600 078
Class : Five Section - ‘N’
Students in the Team : Aditya Balanchander, Karan Rajeev, Nagarajan V.M,
Ritesh S, Siddharth Varma
Mentor (Representative from the Ms. Chitra Devi, Teacher – Facilitator (Primary)
School)
I Our Findings
Dumping of Garbage without segregation
Strewn garbage is a common scene in Chennai. We find that wherever there are garbage bins, rubbish is found
littered around the bin. One could find all kinds of unwanted things like left over food, used batteries, cloth rags,
paper, plastics, broken buckets, glasses, crockery, vegetable and fruit peels and plant waste to anything that is
considered unwanted in the households to be dumped in these bins.
A Garbage bin with all kinds of waste
We find food packets and spilled food, diapers, soiled cotton balls etc. lying in the middle of the road, strewn
along the foot path or over the wide area of land around the bin. Does anyone ever stop to think as to why
garbage is spread all over the road?
4. Dog rampaging a Trash bin Rag picker looking for paper products
The answer for this is very simple. Garbage consists of many things which rag pickers, and animals need. The rag
pickers try to pick glass/plastic wares, from the garbage piles, a few of them look for paper and paper products,
while the vagabonds look for leftover food and animals look for something that they could feed upon.
If only these are collected in separate recyclable plastic covers as biodegradable & non biodegradable waste
before they are disposed into separate bins, life would be healthier for all of us.
We can also commonly find burning of garbage in some localities. This includes burning of rubber products like
tyres & tubes as well. This produces lot of smoke causing harm to the environment and also poses health
hazards.
We are all aware of the ban, on burning of old things during the Bhogi/Sankaranthi festival. The ban is mainly
imposed to avoid burning of all unwanted things, resulting in environmental pollution.
The garbage piles also attract flies and other harmful insects. During the rainy season, the wet and damp
garbage allows the growth of many harmful, disease causing germs.
II Course of Action
Both the participant students and parents involved in this project, designed the following course of action to
achieve the objective
Assess the level of awareness on garbage segregation in the neighbourhood and in the school
Create awareness on waste segregation, and suggestions for segregation .
As a first step, a questionnaire containing 16 questions on various aspects of garbage generation, disposal and
management was distributed to about 100 members of the public outside the School campus, and their
responses were obtained.
5. Road Activity outside Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School K.K.Nagar
People who answered the questionnaire included school students, parents, senior citizens, NGO Activists,
College Students, Professionals, Teachers, and other members of the public.
Prizes were awarded to participants who got answers right for 4 questions out of the 16 questions, which were
based on awareness on
Authorities to be approached in case of a garbage overflow
Garbage clearance help line numbers
Government approved micron level of plastic
States which had implemented ban on plastic below 30 micron thickness.
Active Volunteer of the’ Art of Living’ - NGO filling in the Questionnaire
6. Picture of a prize winner with the students who participated in this project
The following chart displays the proportion of awareness levels in the public
The review of the answers to the questionnaire revealed that though the awareness on the different types of waste
was good, the public is not aware of the need to segregate.
Hence multiple methods for creating awareness on waste segregation was formulated and it was decided
through a meeting, to address the adults in the neighbouring households and the children in the participating
school with about roughly 6000 children studying from Pre KG to Class XII. (Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior
Secondary School, K.K. Nagar, Chennai). The below mentioned are some of the strategies adopted:
Pamphlet Distribution at the school & in the neighbourhood
Pamphlet /Slogan display in the school premises and residential complexes
7. Friendly emails were sent to different teams of big MNCs in which the participating students
parents/relatives are working, requesting them to forward the same to their friends and relatives.
Uploading a copy of the same in ‘Facebook’ & ‘ Twitter’ - social networking websites.
Pamphlet Distribution
A pamphlet was prepared detailing the hazards of improper disposal of waste, the need to segregate them, the
different classifications of unwanted things, and the different ways in which these could be disposed
/reduced/reused. Children distributed about 1000 pamphlets in the school premises.
The children were also made to prepare slogans on this topic, and these were displayed on the school notice
boards in the corridors and near the canteen.
Children putting up charts on garbage Charts being put up in the Senior Secondary
segregation near the school canteen Block of the School
The children were made to read the pamphlets, and a small quiz based on the pamphlet was conducted in the
school to assess the understanding levels. Responses of about 350 students were obtained and the results are
tabulated below.
8. Children distributing and reading the pamphlets at the School
Awarness level amongst students after the pamphlet distribution
Display of pamphlets and slogans in the notice boards of Residential complex
Slogans/Pamphlets were also displayed in the residential complexes. Permission was sought from the flat
associations and pamphlets/slogans were put up on the notice boards
Putting up posters in residential complexes Slogan Display in residential complexes
9. Uploading the awareness programme in public networking websites
A write up with photographs of the entire programme consisting of
Road activity
Pamphlet /Slogan display
has been posted in the networking sites of the Facebook & Captions displayed in the Twitter network.
Future course of action
1. It has been decided to take this awareness campaign to different NGO activists and social activity clubs
such as Rotary, Lions, Cosmopolitan and so on …. In order to reach various sectors of public at all
levels.
2. To educate the class four servants, who are directly in the service of keeping the households and public
places clean
Are we going to leave a Clean Safe, and Healthy World?
YES WE ARE - By Reducing Reusing & Recycling the Non Biodegradable waste
Let us Contribute our little bit to save the Environment
Small Drops make an Ocean
Let us save our Environment – PSBB ians
"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi”
Aditya Balanchander,
Karan Rajeev,
Nagarajan V.M,
Ritesh S,
Siddharth Varma
10. Courtesy: Parent participants, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School K.K.Nagar
Chennai 600 078
Enclosures: Hard copy of the Questionnaire
Hard copy of the Pamphlet
Soft copy of the Project report in a CD
